When you believe
by NarnianLady
Summary: Susan, her mother, used to tell her stories about a magical land she never believed in. But when fate takes her to a place beyond her wildest dreams she will be forced to believe what her mother told her was real...
1. Learn to believe

**(REVISED VERSION)**

**I will take some time to revise each of the chapters I've written so far and once I'm done (which I hope doesn't take too long) I will continue the story :)**

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**PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE ACTUAL STORY! (I won't take you long and you'll understand this story better)**

**First I should let you know this is an AU, therefore I took some creative liberties. This story takes place after _"The last battle" _but I changed a few things (and added some others): **

******a) Peter, Edmund and Lucy are in Aslan's country, while many Narnians and Telmariens still live in Narnia, because Narnia was never destroyed.**

**b) Susan grew older in London and she eventually got married. She has three daughters: Bridget (16), Caroline (11) and Alice (7). Their father is dead. Susan's family is still known as Pevensie simply because I like that last name better than any other I could have created for them.**

******c) After Tirian, the Telmarine dynasty continued ruling over Narnia for years. The current king in Narnia is named King Tavian VII.**

**d) This is the story of Bridget Pevensie.**

**So, here's the first chapter of this story.**

**I'll try to keep all my chapters above 1,500 words. This one here is around 1,700 so I already acomplished that goal in this one.**

**Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter I**

**"Learn to believe"**

"…and then, the High King turned around just in time to stop Miraz's blade from killing him, and with a swift twirl taking the sword, he pierced Miraz's shoulder with it. Everyone was staring at them both, wanting to know what was happening"

Her mother's voice was a bit too exaggerated as if wanting to give emphasis to the story. She tended to do that when narrating stories. She was acting everything in front of her little daughter, using an umbrella as a sword and she had a blanket tied around her neck and falling down her back as if it was a cape.

"All the Telmarines were expecting Peter to kill Miraz, which was what any of them would have done in such situation, but no, Peter didn't kill Miraz. Instead he passed the sword to prince Caspian…"

"And Caspian killed him, mommy?" sweet little Alice asked, bewildered by the tale.

In all the stories her mother had told her, she always spoke of Caspian as a very noble young man, never as ruthless as his own kin, the Telmarines. Alice never thought Caspian could be able to kill his uncle, not because he didn't dare or because he wasn't _strong enough_ to do it… No, Caspian wasn't a tad weak… He was far too noble and had enough courage not to do it.

"What do think he did, honey?" her mother asked tenderly, encouraging her daughter to think of the following part of the story.

"Well… I don't think Caspian killed him…" she said slowly and at the same time tying to figure out how the tale could go on. "But Miraz was a very mean king. I'm sure the Telmarines didn't like him at all!" Alice said with a funny frown on her brow.

"Not even one bit" her mother assured her. "And yes, you're right, Caspian didn't kill his uncle, he was far too courageous to do such a thing. Miraz thought he was actually going to kill him in revenge of his father's murder, he even told Caspian he had the makings of a Telmarine king… to which Caspian responded he was not like him, sinking the sword in the ground in front of his uncle. The whole Narnian army burst in applauses for their prince as he did that…"

As her mother was sitting on Alice's bed, telling her another overly boring and childish bedtime story about this magical land her mother invented, Bridget was reading a book calmly on the bed next to them and even though she was trying to pay attention to her reading she was half-listening to the story her mother was telling her seven-year-old sister.

Another story about this Kings and Queens of Old and this pathetically noble prince named Capian, Casian or something... And there was even a bloody talking mouse! How could her sister enjoy that kind of stories? They were so stupid! And for God's sake, the heroes in these stories were merely kids!

Caroline, the middle Pevensie sibling, came out of the bathroom dressed in her pajamas and with a towel around her head to dry her hair. She also sat on Alice's bed to listen to the story her mother was telling her younger sister at that time.

Even though Caroline was about to turn twelve in a few weeks, she still loved the stories her mother knew about Narnia. Bridget always was telling her she was way too old for those kinds of fairytales but Caroline never listened to her. As usual…

Her favourite moment of the day was when her mother was sharing with her and Alice more and more stories about Narnia and it's inhabitants even if Bridget always was reluctant to have to hear them, because the three Pevensie girls slept in the same room. Even if Bee did everything not to listen to those tales, she always ended up hearing them… against her will, of course.

Bridget again focused on her book and managed to read a few paragraphs but when her mother started talking about walking trees that were finishing off this enemy army, she again started to pay attention to the story thinking that this time her mother really lost her mind.

"… breaking the Telmarines' catapults and making them run away. The huge trees were still following them…"

"You're telling her about the battle against the Telmarines?" Caroline asked filled with interest and happy she already knew that story, for that meant she didn't miss any part of it while having a bath.

"Oh, come on, you can't actually like that story?" Bridget asked her sister mockingly. "The one of the evil king who killed the poor prince's father? And in which Capian later fights for his throne and ends up living happily ever after in his huge castle?"

"Hey! You ruined the end, Bee!" Alice said highly annoyed.

"His name is Caspian, Bridget" her mother corrected her. "And yes, it's that magnificent story of betrayal, friendship, honour and being able to fight for what you believe in" she smiled as she said those words, for she remembered the whole adventure inside her head and through her heart. She remembered her time as Queen Susan the Gentle and everything she, her siblings and Caspian got through to free the Narnians from the Telmarines.

"Why do you always encourage them to believe all those fairytales, mother? That's just what they are: Fairytales"

"Trust me, Bee, they are more than just fairytales"

"Mother, is that for real?" Bridget looked at her mother in disbelief and closed her book. "I can't believe you really think that way. You are too old to believe that foolishness! You're just filling Alice and Caroline's heads with things that simply can not happen!"

"Bridget, don't talk to me that way" her mother said strictly, a bitter tone mixing in her voice, but what really surprised her sixteen-year-old daughter was the fact that there was some sort of demand of being respected when her mother spoke to her. It was quite ironic they were talking about kings and queens at the moment because she would have sworn her mother looked like a queen at that time.

"I'm sorry, mother. I didn't mean to talk to you that way. What I'm just saying is that you have to stop telling them this stories" she finished.

"What's the problem if I tell them my Narnian stories? You used to believe in those stories as well" Susan made her daughter think through that for a while.

"Yeah, well that happened before I knew how dark the world really. That war is not and epic fight, but a brutal and cruel massacre. There are people out there who don't hesitate to kill or rob. That's why you have to quit, because it's truly disappointing to think of a happy, nonexistent land such as Narnia and then realize that kind of stuff doesn't exist"

Susan was utterly shocked by her daughter's words. She remembered when she was about her age and she also wanted to stop believing in Narnia. She spent quite some time thinking Narnia was nothing more than a childhood game or an infant's tale.

Bridget was more very much alike her when she was her age. Susan wasn't sure that was a very good thing, though. When she was sixteen she could only believe what she saw with her own eyes, she didn't believe in any sort of fictional story and her mind insisted on explaining everything through logic.

"Girls, I'll finish telling you this story, tomorrow, all right?" she said looking at her two daughters lovingly.

"Okay, mommy"

"Yes, sure"

"Goodnight, then" she said and placed a sweet kiss on each their foreheads. Then she looked at Bridget and made a gesture for her daughter to follow her as she exited the room.

They went to Susan's bedroom and there they both sat on the bed looking at each other without knowing how to start this talk. There was this unpleasant silence filling the room, dense and revolving around them. But finally her mother spoke, breaking the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"I don't blame you for not believing, Bee. But you have to let your sisters do it if that's what they want to"

"They're too old to think of magical countries and talking animals, mother"

"I'm older than them both and I fervently believe Narnia is real"

Bridget felt an urge to laugh at her mother's words but as she looked at her and saw how serious she was, she held back that impulse.

"But… why?" Bridget had to ask. Why a forty-three-year-old woman could believe that kind of things?

Her mother took a deep breath and looked straight into her daughter's ocean blue eyes.

"You remember I once told you I lost all my family on a train crash?" Susan said, tears stating to form in her eyes.

Bridget only nodded. She knew part of that story but she didn't even know the names of her uncles and her aunt because her mother never liked to speak about that. Now it was her chance to know, to get some answers about an unspoken matter between her mother and her.

"The thing is… they didn't die. They are all in a place named Aslan's country. It's a land much alike to Narnia"

"W-what?"

" I was supposed to be with them… but I really didn't spend a lot of time with them since… since the return"

Bridget was getting more and more confused but she thought it would be better if she didn't ask any questions and let her mother explain everything.

And she did. Her mother told her everything about her siblings, about who the Kings and Queens of Old were. Bridget was utterly surprised about that bit in which her mother was a ruler of a magical and foreign land, it seemed impossible. Susan explained everything about Aslan, why Peter and she were not allowed to return to Narnia ever again, her despair and attempt to forget after that, and how after her sibling's _death_ she started believing again. Then in a dream Aslan spoke to her and told her where her siblings really were.

"You…" Bridget couldn't continue. It was a huge revelation and she still was in a state of shock. "Do you… really expect me to believe that?"

"No, I don't" her mother simply answered. "I just want you to learn to believe"

Then she stood up and went to take something out a small drawer. It was something wrapped in sliver silk and she gave that to Bridget. Her daughter looked at her with questioning eyes.

"You can unpack it" her mother smiled at her.

Bridget did as she was told and was utterly amazed by what she saw. It was an ivory horn with beautiful carvings all over it. It seemed to have the form of a lion's mouth, roaring, and there were some golden details decorating it. It was truly beautiful.

Bridget perfectly knew what that was. Her mother told her in one of the stories that prince Caspian had summoned the Kings and Queens of Old using a magic horn from one of them.

She looked at her mother with her eyes wide open.

Queen Susan's horn.

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**So? How you liked it? Please let me know what you think and if you have some ideas for the story also let me know about them!**

**Please leave a review! :)**


	2. The dream of a queen

**(REVISED VERSION)**

**I will take some time to revise each of the chapters I've written so far and once I'm done (which I hope doesn't take too long) I will continue the story :)**

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**Some of you might be wondering how or why Susan has her horn in London. Well, here's the explanation.**

**IMPORTANT! - There's a flashback in this chapter, all that part is written in italics.**

**And once again I accomplished my goal. This chapter is 1, 800 words long.**

**Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter II**

**"The dream of a queen"**

A wave or realization washed over Bridget as she was looking at the ivory item her mother just gave her. Looking at that horn changed everything. Holding it in her hands. Seeing it was real was a living proof that everything her mother ever told her about Narnia was real. Narnia really existed.

But how could any of that be true? It was simply impossible that her mother once lived in a magical land and ruled there for years as a queen alongside her brothers and sister.

It was so hard to start actually thinking any of that was real. When she was younger she believed in Narnia, of course. But she was very, _very_ young when she believed. She was around eight years old when she refused to keep thinking talking animals, a majestic lion and a land on the other side of a wardrobe could be real. According to her it was plain stupid to believe in any that.

"Do you remember I once told you in one of the stories that Father Christmas gave that horn to Queen Susan the Gentle?" her mother suddenly asked, bringing Bridget again to reality and away of her ponderings.

Her daughter only nodded.

Bridget also knew that same horn took the Kings and Queens of Old out of their world and back into Narnia when prince Caspian blew it, in need of help.

"I left it in my saddle the day we came back for the first time. But on our next journey to Narnia, Caspian gave it to me again"

Bridget thought it was quite weird to hear mother talk about that story not as a narrator anymore, but as part of the story, as one of the characters in it. She was no longer saying _Queen Susan_, this time she started saying _Me_ instead.

"I left the horn in Narnia that second time as well. But something really strange happened on the night I found out my family was gone"

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_She had been crying for the whole day.__ Never in her whole life had she shed so many tears. She was clutching strongly in her hand a letter that was now wrinkled and partially ragged._

_That damned letter._

_Her family was dead and she found out through a bloody letter._

_Susan was regretting so many things now that she was lying on her bed and thinking of all the moments she spent alongside her family, next to her dear siblings. All those beautiful memories._

_But what was really killing her from the inside was that on the last few years she had been very distant to them. All that time she could have shared with her family and instead she had kept them away from her…_

_A__nd now it was too late._

_Oh! Poor Peter! So determined, strong and caring. He was her older brother, who always made sure she was fine. Always looking after her as her most loyal friend. He even was somehow a father figure to her, because after her father left, Peter took that place for the rest of the family, to protect them, to make them know there was someone there for the rest them._

_Edmund! How she missed her dear Edmund! So smart, brave and loyal. He as well as Peter, always was there for the rest of them when they needed him. He was the most loyal man she had ever known. He was somehow shy and quiet, but inside him there was so much joy and he always brought it out when being near his siblings._

_And Lucy! Her little sister! She was the sunshine of the family, always lighting the faces of everybody just when they looked at her. So cheerful and innocent. Her dear Lucy was very close to Susan because she was her older sister and there was a deep connection between them. She loved Lucy's light, shining always as the brightest of stars._

_And Susan had given all that away._

_They were the most amazing people she had ever known and now they were all gone. But the one thing she knew at that moment was that none of them deserved to die. And in a train crash! How terrible!_

_After a couple of hours Susan was finally starting to get sleepy, eager to be led to the realm of dreams and be able to forget about the awful event of the day. Her sorrow and pain were slowly driven away as her eyes slowly started closing._

_And so, she began to dream. At first there was nothing but pure darkness and simply nothing to be dreamt. But after a while something began to appear in her mind._

_She was walking on a wide meadow. Her surroundings were utterly gorgeous and breathless. That landscape was the most stunning thing she had ever behold. It smelled of grass and blossoming flowers, the scent brought to her by the sweet breeze brushing her face in the most refreshing of ways. It felt like a summer day._

_Soon as she began walking she saw a few meters from her there were many people standing as if they were waiting for her to approach. Step by step, Susan believed she recognized the faces staring at her with huge grins and she noticed she was smiling back at them as well._

_All of that was strangely familiar to her. She felt she knew them all from a drea. Or a dream of a dream…_

_But of course! She knew all of them! They were her friends. Her friends of Narnia! There was Caspian, Mr. Tumnus, Glenstorm, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, Trufflehunter, Trumpkin, Oreius, many other centaurs, dwarves, fauns and all the people she knew._

_And there was Aslan standing in front of all of them. He was emanating such power and kindness at the same time. There was always something magnificent about him every time she looked at the Great Lion._

"_Welcome, Queen Susan the Gentle" he spoke, his voice a mix of a human voice and a lion's growl, so strong and deep it almost made Susan shiver._

_She bowed to him, slightly bringing her head down, and as she raised it to look at Aslan again, she saw three people were standing behind him._

_Her eyes filled with tears for she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her siblings were there. Alive and unharmed. Peter, Edmund and Lucy ran to her to embrace their sister, who gladly received their hug._

_Everyone could notice it was a very sentimental and important moment for the Kings and Queens of Old, so nobody interrupted them. Only when they let go of each other but still near to one another, the Great Lion spoke again._

"_This is my country, dear one" he said, talking only to Susan. "As you can see your siblings are not dead as you thought. They will stay here forever as well as you…"_

_Susan smiled._

"…_when your time comes" the lion continued. "You are not yet ready to spend eternity in this place. You still have a life to be lived in your world. But there is something I wish you to have, as a reminder of Narnia and the magic that rules over it"_

_Susan thought of herself and her attempt to forget Narnia over the past few years. There was a time when she only thought of Narnia as a childish game she used to play with her siblings. But deep inside her she knew Narnia was not such a thing, that she was just trying to deceive herself. She knew it was a lot more than just a game, and that it was an enchanted and magnificent land she loved so much, that it hurt deep down to leave it and never return._

_That's why she chose to forget. And for Aslan's words she was certain he knew she was trying to leave all her memories about Narnia behind._

_Aslan looked at Caspian, who was standing near them and that was when Susan noticed he was holding her precious horn.__ He walked towards her and gave her the beautiful ivory object, smiling dearly at her._

"_I think it's time you have this back" he said, his thick accent marking each of his words._

_She smiled back as she remembered he once told her that, many years ago._

_Susan was overjoyed to be there with all these people who loved her and who she loved back. She was glad to be with her siblings once again, knowing they were not dead, to be surrounded by her dearest friends and to have her wonderful horn back._

_Out of the sudden she opened her eyes, slightly confused to see she was in her room and not in Aslan's country anymore._

_A smile found its way in her lips and she felt her burden wasn't there anymore, haunting her and making her feel uncomfortable. That weight she felt she had been carrying was suddenly gone, leaving her with a feeling of lightness and pure bliss._

_Susan noticed she no longer had the letter in her hand, instead she was holding a nicely carved ivory horn._

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Her mother ended her story and Bridget understood that even if some parts of it seemed highly unlikely to ever happen, her mother was telling her the truth. She could see it in her deep blue eyes.

"That's how I got my horn back. And that's why I no longer cry for my family's deaths. Because I know they're not dead. They're waiting for me" Susan said with a huge grin.

Bridget could see her mother was craving to return to this _Aslan's country_ as she called it. She knew her mother was eager to be with her beloved friends of Narnia, with her siblings once again.

"I know even though I've showed you my horn and I've told this part of my life, you still won't…"

"Stop" Bridget sharply interrupted her. "Please, just stop…"

What was she supposed to think now? She knew she could believe what her mother had just told her, because her mother never lied to her. She had never told her a single lie in her entire life. But this… this was something different.

She had never been more confused in her whole life!

"Bee, I know it's hard to believe in this. I didn't believe in it either when Lucy found the wardrobe even if I knew Lucy never lied. But…"

"Mother, please…" Bridget interrupted her once again.

She didn't want to think of what her mother just told her. She didn't want to confuse herself anymore. She didn't want to choose between what her mother believed and what she herself believed! Because what for her mother was real, for Bridget was simply nonexistent. Impossible.

Bridget looked at her mother straight to the eyes and placed the horn on her bed. Then, without a word, she left her mother's room trying to forget what she just heard.

Susan looked sadly at her beautiful horn and realized it would take more than just a story and that horn to make her daughter believe.

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**I hoped you liked this one! I'm very proud of how Susan's flashback turned out. I had the delight to write a small (diminutive, actually) scene between Caspian and Susan in her flashback (Yeah, I'm a HUGE Caspian/Susan fan! Making Susan have three daughters with someone who's not Caspian goes against all my beliefs, but that's how this story goes...)**

**I also used a quote form the film _Prince Caspian_ when Caspian is giving Susan her horn back :D**

**Please leave a review! :)**


	3. When the horn is blown

**(REVISED VERSION)**

**I will take some time to revise each of the chapters I've written so far and once I'm done (which I hope doesn't take too long) I will continue the story :)**

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**Thank you so much guys for the ones who are still sticking up with this story :) I really appreciate it.**

**This chapter is around 1, 570 words long (goal accomplished once more...)**

**IMPORTANT!- The small lines written in italics are simply thoughts but there's a part which is all written in italics: that's Bridget's dream, ok?**

**Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter III**

**"When the horn is blown"**

She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep at all that night. Bridget felt too troubled to be able to rest; too many ideas and so many thoughts were making their way through her mind. They kept her constantly thinking or wondering about so many things that Bridget wasn't feeling a tad of sleepiness or tiredness.

She was constantly closing her eyes trying to make her believe she actually wanted to sleep but deep inside her the only thing that was certain for her was the fact that she wanted answers. She wanted the truth. She wanted to know what was real and what wasn't.

One question was prowling all the time within her mind:

_I don't believe in Narnia because I know it isn't real or because I don't want to think it really exists?_

Maybe after all Narnia was there on the other side of the wardrobe…

_No!_ She thought straight away. _I __know __there __isn__'__t __such __a __world __as __Narnia! __I __know __it!_

Well, after all if Narnia existed or not, Bridget would never accept it because of her pride. When she thought she knew something, most certainly she was right about it…

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Thank God Bridget had no school the next day because she had had a lousy night's rest. She couldn't tell for sure, but she had probably slept around four hours only and a terrible headache was the consequence of her lack of sleep.

She immediately told her mother as she woke up how bad she was feeling and her always loving mother told her to stay in bed while she fetched her a nice cup of warm tea.

Susan came back after a few minutes with a cup filled with mix of chamomile, mint and rosemary tea to soothe her daughter's ache.

"You didn't sleep at all, didn you?" Susan more affirmed than asked while Bee was taking the first sip of her tea.

"How do you know?"

"Well, I can tell for those huge dark circles under your eyes, dear"

True. They really must have been huge…

"But I know it is because of all that I've told you about Narnia, me being a queen, Aslan, the horn…" Susan continued. "I couldn't sleep well either after Lucy told us she had been in this wonderful world in a wardrobe" she almost laughed when she said that, remembering her reaction to her little sister's words "But then, when she told us Ed had been there as well, and he denied it and then Professor Kirk saying Lucy was right… That kept me awake the whole night. Just as it happened to you"

"But, mom… I can't believe Narnia is real" Bridget said barely in a whisper.

"Bee, but you can believe me. It is. It is as real as this world we're living in"

Susan was really making an effort in making her daughter believe. But why? Bridget didn't really understand why her mother was trying so hard. After all Narnia was kind of an alternate universe… It was not like she could go there anyway. So why believe in a place she would never see?

"Mom, I just wish you would stop trying to make me think Narnia is real! For me it isn't real and it will never be! No matter how hard you try you won't fool me as you're fooling Alice and Caroline… So please, just stop it"

Bridget could see her mother was really hurt with those words that had gone trough her as sharp knives.

Maybe Bee was right. Maybe she should stop trying to make her oldest daughter accept as true her most cherished belief. After all, that was exactly what Narnia was for her. It was everything she believed in… but apparently that was only for her to believe.

"Just do something for me, Bee" she started looking straight into her daughter's blue eyes very seriously. "I want you to keep this for me"

Susan took out her horn from her jacket's side pocket and placed it front of Bridget.

"But mom…"

"Don't" Susan interrupted. "Just keep it, please"

Those were Susan's final words after she left Bridget's room, keeping the girl looking intently at the gorgeous ivory object almost even afraid to touch it again, for she at last began to feel some of the power irradiated by the magical horn.

* * *

One week had passed since the last time Susan spoke of Narnia to Bridget and since the horn passed to be Bee's possession, even if she really didn't want to have it. But for her mother's sake she kept it inside a drawer in her room.

Things were pretty much as they used to be before all this Narnia argument with her mother. Susan stopped pushing her daughter, Bee kept ignoring her sisters' comments about the new story her mother told them at nights before going to sleep and Bridget could sleep peacefully once again. The only problem was that on some occasions she would have some dreams related to the horn or this huge talking lion, Aslan, as her mother called him.

The curios thing about those dreams was that even if she didn't remembered them entirely, the one thing she remembered perfectly was that she always was blowing the ivory horn her mother gave her. And she had no idea why…

A few days later, Bridget was laying on her bed, sleeping and dreaming when she started having that dream about the horn.

* * *

_Bridget was walking in the middle of a forest when she saw a gigantic lion, with such a majestic golden mane and piercing honey eyes looking straight into her own blue ones._

_Neither of them spoke, but then the lion looked to ground beneath Bridget's feet and then looked back at her. He was trying to tell her something, she knew it._

_Bridget then did the same, looking at the ground beneath her and saw her mother's horn laying next to her feet._

_She picked the horn up, for she thought that was what the lion wanted her to do and without knowing why, she brought the horn to her lips and slowly blew it._

_Everything became a dark blur around her and she disappeared…_

* * *

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see where she was in because she was pretty much confused after such a strange dream.

_Why __is __this __happening __to __me?_ She thought.

She closed her eyes once again trying to sleep again but after a few minutes of rolling in her bed, closing and opening her eyes all the time she gave up. She knew for that night she wouldn't be able to sleep.

Such a shame, since she had been having a good night's rest for the past few days…

Bee got up from bed and started pacing inside her room, trying to think about anything to drive away her "Narnian" thoughts away.

She passed before the drawer where she was keeping Susan's horn and stopped, looking inquisitively at it. Maybe, just maybe… if she did what she was seeing in her dream she would stop having it.

It was a pretty stupid idea, she thought straight away, but she wouldn't loose anything by trying, right?

She walked slowly towards the drawer and carefully opened it, looking inside it to look for this particular white object she was looking for. She moved a few things inside the drawer until she found the horn and took it out.

It glowed dimly because of the moon's light coming from outside Bridget's window and it was the first time Bee could actually contemplate how amazingly beautiful it really was.

_God, my mother is going to kill me for blowing a horn in the middle of the night…_

But for an inexplicable reason Bridget knew she had to do it. It felt right to blow it even if there was no good reason at all to do it at that late hour.

As she always did in her dream, she brought the horn to her lips… and she blew it.

It wasn't as noisy as she thought it would be but after the sound came out of the ivory object everything became really confusing for Bridget Pevensie. She felt as she was spinning so fast she began to feel really sick and dizzy. Everything was turning around her and all she could see was blurry. Bridget couldn't even feel the ground under her bare feet. Then she felt she crashed against something hard.

Her head was aching so badly and all her body felt really sore. She opened one eye and she could spot the sun right over her and some fluffy clouds as well.

_What? Why is daytime?..._

She was lying on her back and she slowly rolled to one side and placed both her hands on the ground to be able to stand up. It took her some time to do it and when she finally managed to do it she was stumbling.

Bridget looked around her in confusion not really getting where she was until she understood she was in the middle of a forest, wearing her pajamas and her mother's horn was lying on the ground very near her.

_Oh my God, what is this place?_

Bridget took the horn from the ground and blew it again. This time nothing happened. She was still standing on the very same spot, nothing around her moved and even though the horn sounded loud and clear absolutely nothing happened.

A wave of realization came to her, her eyes opening widely and with fright she understood perfectly where she was and apparently she couldn't go back home.

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**Did this chapter sucked badly? I personaly think this is not the best chapter so far but I think it is also because this is not the most interesting part of the story... But Bee is in Narnia now so this is when the story gets better and more exciting (I hope).**

**Besides in the next chapter my other main character makes his entrance!**

**Please leave a review!**


	4. A new acquaintance

**(REVISED VERSION)**

**I will take some time to revise each of the chapters I've written so far and once I'm done (which I hope doesn't take too long) I will continue the story :)**

* * *

**So, here's the fourth chapter.**

**Bee is in Narnia (finally) and she meets my other main character in this one! :)**

**This chapter is around 1, 500 words.**

**Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter IV**

**"A new acquaintance"**

Bridget was freaking out even though she didn't want to admit it to herself. She breathed in deeply and tried to calm herself down. Very much as her mother used to do around her own age, she was trying to think logically and trying to find an answer of how she had gotten there. And most importantly: how to get out.

How could she possibly be in Narnia just by blowing a damn horn!

"This isn't possible… this isn't possible… this isn't possible…" Bee kept saying over and over again as she was pacing holding the horn, or more like gripping it tightly, while trying to find a way to go back home as soon as possible.

If anyone had asked Bridget her impression of Narnia at that moment she would probably yelled that she utterly hated the place, for she was more desperate to get out of there than she had ever been in her life trying to get out from somewhere else. That kept her from noticing she was actually in a very beautiful forest.

The first idea that had came to her after a while was to blow to horn again to go back to England, but of course things were a little more complicated. She had done it and nothing happened, she was still stuck in there.

Time passed by and after finally deciding that things wouldn't improve is she just stayed there walking around like mad and after her stomach started to make weird noises, Bridget started walking ahead hoping to find some food or just some way to get the hell out of that bloody world.

It was funny but being trapped in that land made Bridget starting to feel pretty much like Alice in Wonderland. But Bee always though that was a great story filled with fun and humor, and being trapped in Narnia was not fun at all. If anything she was bored to death… and really hungry as well.

One thing she should accept despite her idea of Narnia being a hideous place was that the landscapes were utmost beautiful, if anything they were utterly breathtaking. Once she cleared her mind a bit she began to actually see the place she found herself in.

It was such a gorgeous to place to be in and for a moment she forgot all her distress and problems while beholding the beauty around her

The forest she was walking through was so colorful and so full of life. The trees were immensely big with strong thick twigs carrying so many leaves decorating the top of the forest with so many shades of green and brown.

The grass she felt beneath her bare feet was the softest grass she had ever walked on also adorned with a few little flowers of so many colors spreading all over the ground.

There was the bright golden sun going through the leafy roof above her, the merry chirping sounds of the birds and the calming sound of a river near the forest.

But then she looked at the object she was holding on her right hand and remembered that very object was the reason she was there and slowly her bad temper returned to her making her forget about the entire splendor of that mighty forest.

She really had learned to truly hate that bloody horn over the past few hours…

After so much time of walking without even stopping, Bridget began to feel really tired and the hunger wasn't really helping. Her feet were sore and her stomach seemed to refuse to stop is growling.

Thank God she could already see the edge of the forest a few meters before her. _At __last!_She thought, feeling exhaustion going mercilessly through her entire body.

Her goal all that time she had been walking was to reach the edge to get out of the forest, but once she reached it what would she do? Unfortunately Bridget didn't have a plan after that.

Anyway there wasn't much she could do so she only kept walking until she reached the very end of the forest.

After the forest there was a meadow and with a growing smile on her lips she was able to spot a river not far from where she was, and because she was a bit dehydrated the water from the river would help to vanish her thirst and maybe even to refresh herself because her pajamas were a little bit warm for that summer-like day.

For walking with her bare feet they hurt a bit and she was planning to sink them underwater as soon as she reached the river but she got a little unpleasant surprise as she reached it.

The river wasn't at the level of the ground. The water had carved the soil and it had gone under maybe around twelve meters, so Bee would have to climb down if she wanted to reach the water.

It was a very small gorge but Bridget really didn't feel like climbing at that moment, the thing was her body was asking –or yelling- for just one sip of water.

Bee put the horn on a pocket form her pajama and then started to descend and was happy to notice it was a lot easier than it looked from above.

She was very pleased to drink that crystal clear water for it really tasted well and was utmost refreshing. She also washed her dirty feet with the cold water to clean them and to massage them a little bit because they were very swollen for all the walking she had done without shoes.

As soon as she felt more or less rested and when she felt she was done there, she got up and started to climb her way up. She was around the middle of the gorge as she felt one rock beneath her left foot move and then fall, making Bridget stagger and have the awful feeling she was about to fall.

Then she made a terrible mistake: she looked down.

_Oh dear! _

Bridget began to feel some vertigo, which was bad and then as she moved, trying to climb a bit higher another rock moved and fell, which was even worse. That time she couldn't hold back a scream, for she really felt she was going to fall.

She couldn't move further, not even if that was the only thing she wanted to do. She wanted to move from that place as soon as possible!

Bee was hanging there, completely frozen, with her eyes closed and almost sure she was going to die. She was focusing on than and on that only, that she didn't hear the echo of a horse's hooves galloping on the meadow, very near her.

"Excuse me. Do you need some help? I heard you screaming" Came a voice from above.

Bridget startled as she heard a male voice thickly accented –with an accent she had never heard before, by the way- and she carefully looked up.

A young man, maybe a couple of years older than her, was staring at her with curiosity. After all, who wouldn't do that while seeing a poor girl hanging from a cliff, scared to death to even move an inch.

He had dark long hair, kind of messy, he had a strong complexion, tanned skin and from where she was hanging his eyes seemed to be completely black.

"Oh, no. I'm fine" Bee lied, her pride kicking in and refusing the young man's help only to prove herself she was able to get out of that on her own.

He half smiled with such a cheeky smile, Bridget felt the sudden urge to slap him in the face for making fun of her.

"If you say so… but to me it looks like you are pretty stuck down there, my lady"

The young man then started to descend and within a few seconds he was next to her.

She hated him for making the climb look so easy. Even though descending was easier than climbing up, he had done it faster than she had just some minutes ago.

"I will carry you but I need you to climb on my back" he said.

_There's no way I'm climbing on your back! You're a total stranger!_

"I don't need your help" Bridget said maybe a little bit too arrogant.

He just stared at her for a couple of seconds. His eyes were not black as she though at the beginning. They were brown, but it was such a dark and intense color that made his eyes appear black. And only now, as the light of the sun touched his eyes, they seemed to be made of pure honey.

He had a pretty intense gaze.

"Fine" she said, grumbling.

He helped her to move and to be able to climb on his back. Then, very carefully but with a speed Bridget was envying, the young man reached the edge of the gorge and helped Bridget off his back.

"Thanks"

"It was my pleasure…" he began, but it felt as he didn't complete his sentence. He looked at her asking her name with that look.

"Bridget"

"Bridget" he repeated. "What a strange name. You're not from around here, are you?" he said as he was scanning what she was wearing, which really made Bridget feel uncomfortable for she was wearing her pajamas.

"No, I'm not" she said with a bad temper the young man couldn't really understand. "And actually the only thing I want to do now is to go back home"

"Well, maybe I can help you to get there" he said as the complete gentleman he was.

"I really doubt it"

"At least let me try" he said as he approached his pitch-black horse standing near them.

Bee walked towards him and the man helped her up the horse and the he mounted the horse as well.

"You can call me Fevian, by the way" he introduced himself.

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**Yay! Fevian is here! :)**

**So here's where the story really begins. I hope you like this chapter, I really worked hard on this one and I actually liked the way it turned out.**

**IMPORTANT!- Since I'm not very good with the whole geography of Narnia, the geography is going to be based on the map from _The lion, the witch and the wardrobe_.**

**And just in case you're wondering, Bee was walking through the Dancing Lawns in this chapter and she met Fevian in the Fords of Beruna.**

**If you have some suggestions for the story or any ideas, please let me know!**

**Please review!**


	5. The prince of Narnia

******IMPORTANT- I uploaded this chapter a few months ago, but I recently found out there were some details I needed to add, so I deleted it and added somed stuff.**

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**Hello everybody! I'm deeply sorry it took me so much time to post this chapter, but finally here it is: Chapter five!**

**Bee and Fevian get to know each other a little bit :)**

**This one is around 1, 700 words. **

**I really hope you like it! And I hope the wait was worthy!**

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**Chapter 5**

**"The prince of Narnia"**

She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling of her room. That awful brown ceiling she always had wanted to paint blue. But of course her mother wouldn't let her; she always said that shade of brown was a nice colour. Of course it wasn't…

Deep down, Bridget knew her mother didn't want to change much of the house because that was the way it was before her father left… before he died. For some reason her mother wanted to keep the house the same, without any changes or improvements. Changing it felt for Susan as erasing the memory of her husband in that house, her beloved Charles.

Drifting away from her thoughts, Bridget got up from bed and looked at the window. She could still see the moon through it and many stars shinning in the evening darkness.

She looked around to find herself in an empty room. The beds of Caroline and Alice were not there.

_That's odd…_

Bridget didn't feel sleepy at all even thought it was still late at night, but the fact that her sisters and their beds were not there really made her feel very puzzled. So she walked out of her room to find an awful surprise outside her door.

That was it. Her room was all that was left of her house. There was nothing surrounding her room as it did before: the bathroom, her mother's bedroom, the small living room… her room was all that was left.

Beneath the limited light both the moon and the stars provided, all Bridget could see around her were ashes. Nothing else. Only ashes everywhere she looked.

It seemed as if everything had been destroyed in a war… most likely by a bomb.

Her family was nowhere around and Bridget never felt more lonely in her entire life as she felt in that moment.

She hand the most horrible feeling that in she would never have back everything she loved… or everyone. She was stuck there in the middle of nowhere, with a choking feeling on loneliness she couldn't get rid of.

* * *

The sunlight caressed her eyes, but that wasn't what woke her up but the voice of a young man with a certain accent she had never heard before. Well, not before yesterday, anyway.

"Wake up, my lady. The day awaits and we still have about one day's journey to finally arrive to Cair Paravel" Fevian said with an excitement Bridget couldn't feel after just having been woken up. "You should have warned me you were such a sleepyhead" he teased her.

Bridget was still lying on the soft grass in a place Fevian had decided to stop the last night to camp and rest. Apparently Bridget had "_over-rested"_ and the young man wanted to keep on moving.

But why the hurry? She was clueless in that matter.

He helped her up as the perfect gentleman he was and sometimes Bridget didn't know if she found that kind of behaviour to be good or annoying.

"Good morning, my lady" he said and smiled after he helped her to stand up.

_Enough!_

"Will you stop calling me _my lady_, please?" she said. "I am no lady and my name is Bridget. Or even you can call me Bee if you want to, but please stop calling me that. _My lady_ is just too irritating"

"Someone didn't wake up in a good mood…" he said, but he wasn't even slightly offended because of the mean tone of her last reply. If anything he had the best mood she had ever beheld. And again, he was teasing her.

She sighed exasperated.

_Talkative, __annoying and cheeky. _She thought without being able to avoid sarcasm. _Lovely combination. Just lovely… _

Fevian helped Bridget to get on the horse and he mounted it as well with an enviable speed. It was clear he had been trained properly in horsemanship.

She slid her hand into one of the two pockets her pajama had to check the horn was still there, where she had placed it before she went to sleep. She wasn't so sure if she ever was going to see her mother again, but in case she ever did, she was sure Susan would be furious if she lost the horn. So she was keeping safe and next to her all the time.

After a few minutes of riding without speaking, an idea hit Bridget's head. He had mentioned something important her brain hadn't been able to process for she was still a bit sleepy but now she finally grasped it. He had said they were heading to Cair Paravel and as far as she could remember that was the place Narnia's royalty lived in. Or at least that was what her mother used to tell her.

"Fevian?"

"Yes, my la-… Bridget"

"Did you said back there by any chance that we were going to a place named Cair Paravel"

"Yes, I did. Why?"

"Why are going there? I mean, I am not an expert in Narnia or anything… but my mother used to tell me that place is where the royalty lives in"

He couldn't help but laugh. She was so lost and it was so obvious.

"Because I leave from time to time to do what I want but eventually I have to return to my home" he explained "Even tough I would love to have more freedom"

She was digesting the message. He was a…

"My mother goes mad whenever I leave home for more than two days… and now I have. I left about four days ago. She will want to kill me once she sees me" she smiled.

"So you're a prince?"

"That's right"

_Bloody hell!_

"But don't worry; my parents are always nice to commoners. Especially my father. My mother's liking is the one hard to get"

_Yes, he called me a commoner… swallow your pride; swallow your pride, Bee._

Nobody had ever called her a commoner, and even if in Narnia she sure was one, she didn't like at all the way that sounded in the lips of the prince. Her pride, of course was the cause of it. She never liked the idea of thinking she was beneath someone else, to think she was inferior to somebody else.

_But if my mother was a Queen, then I am no commoner… No, you know it's only a tale. Oh, Bridget! Forget about it, focus! That's not the point!_

That was just crazy for Bridget. She was actually in Narnia, heading to a castle with the prince himself… All that seemed to be a dream, the horrible nightmare she just had that night seemed to her more likely to happen than anything she had been experiencing over the past few days.

"Oh, and by the way, Bridget, we should stop at Tediaren to buy you some new clothes. I don't believe you feel very comfortable to be travelling around wearing that odd pajama of yours" he said.

"Tediaren?"

"Is that small village you can glimpse over there" he said, pointing at the horizon.

And there it was. Ahead of them there was a very tiny village in which the prince intended to buy something more appropriate for the girl, something to fit in with that world. And this time Bridget really was grateful to him. She was tired to be wearing her "white" pajama, which was so dirty now that it seemed to be a shade of light brown instead of its original colour.

Bridget realized that was the second time he saved her. First from the gorge and now he was sparing her from appearing in Cair Paravel wearing her pajama.

Was this man going to save her from everything all the time or what?

* * *

She looked at herself in a mirror and was amazed by what she saw. She was no longer wearing the dirty, worn out pajama. Bridget was now wearing an olive green dress which seemed to be sort of medieval to her. She had to fasten some leather strings in the front and was a very simple dress. It had two pockets on the sides and she placed the her mother's horn in one of them.

At first Bridget didn't feel like herself wearing that kind of dress, but she had to admit that she didn't look bad at all in the Narnian fashion. She actually thought she looked beautiful, and that wasn't a word she used very often to describe herself.

Even though the prince insisted she didn't allow Fevian to buy her the best dress he found because Bridget didn't want to take advantage of him and let the prince spend a very big amount of money because of her.

Fevian paid a family to let Bridget change in their home and they amiably agreed. As the two youngsters went out of the hose Bridget noticed the prince looked at her approvingly.

She now looked like a normal young woman from Narnia.

_Hurray…_

So the two of them continued their journey to Cair Paravel and Bridget began to think that she actually knew nothing about the man she was with. Other than his name, his royalty and his fondness to tease her.

"Your highness, how old are you?" she asked suddenly.

"You don't need call me that way. And I am nineteen years old, my lad- Bridget… But I'll be twenty next month" he said. "It's going to be hard to stop calling you my lady, you know? It is a habit I have since I learned to speak. Every women I meet are _my lady_"

"Don't worry"

"And may I ask how old are you?"

"I am sixteen yeas old"

"Really?" he said and Bridget just nodded. "Because I thought you were about my age. You seem to be more mature, more grown-up than you should be"

"You're saying I look old? Am I that wrinkled?" she smiled.

"So the lady does have a sense of humour" he said with a charming smile. "I thought you were completely unable to smile or laugh"

"I'll pretend you didn't say that…" Bridget said. "And does his highness have siblings?"

"No" he stated. "I'm sure my father wanted to have another child, either a girl or a boy, it didn't really matter for him, since he already had his heir to the throne. But when I was born my mother had some difficulties and she almost died. I suppose my father didn't want to risk his wife's life again just to have a child when he already had one. And what about you? Any siblings?"

"I have two sisters. Caroline and Alice"

"Does everyone in your family have such strange names?"

"They're not strange! Caroline and Alice are very common names, as well as Bridget. And my father's name, Charles, is also a very regular name from where I come from. Or Susan…"

"Susan is a common name here. Narnia had a queen named Susan once, you know?"

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**So that was it. What do you think about it? Please leave some reviews! And I promise I'll do my best to keep the next chapters coming faster :)**


	6. A queen and a castle

**Hey there! Here's my sixth chapter and I hope it doesn't disappoint anyone :)**

**It took some time for me to write this chapter and it was the most difficult one to write so far. Since I began writing the story I was inventing it as I wrote, but with the end of the previous chapter it reached that point where you have to make a scheme and really create a plot.**

**Now I finally have a general idea of what this story is about and where I'm heading. The end is still in discussion, and if anyone has an idea or some suggestions, pleaso don't doubt and let me know! Even if it is an idea that has nothing to do with the end, I might as well consider adding it to the story :)**

**This chapter is around 1, 750 words long.**

**So with no more delay, here's the story...**

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**Chapter 6**

**"A queen and a castle"**

They were walking around in a marketplace from Tediaren in order to buy some bread, cheese, fruits…anything to eat. At first the plan was to ride straight to Cair Paravel after Fevian bought Bridget the olive dress, but instead of doing that, the instant the prince heard her stomach grumble he also insisted on buying her something to eat.

The prince was interestingly looking around in the marketplace, but the girl was walking besides him absently, distracted by her thoughts.

_Narnia had a queen named Susan once._

Those words really hammered her ears as Bridget heard them and they kept repeating themselves over and over again inside her head.

After they finished buying a couple apples and a small piece of a cheese that smelled deliciously good, they mounted again on the prince's horse and headed to Cair Paravel.

They were riding rather slow, so she could allow herself to eat comfortably on the horse instead of running the risk of her choking with the food if they were galloping.

She thought the prince could be annoying sometimes and too cheeky for her comfort, but she had to admit he was quickly becoming the most thoughtful person she had ever met.

"Thank you for the food" Bridget said, after she finished probably the best cheese she had ever eaten "And the dress… I'm sorry you had to spend your money on me. You should know that if I had any chance to get money here, I would pay you right back…"

"Don't worry, it was a pleasure" he simply answered, with a smile.

After some hesitation on whether she should bring up the topic she had in mind or not she just whispered: "Fevian…"

"Yes?"

"Before, when we were in Tediaren, and we were talking about the _unusual_ names of my… land… you said that Susan was a normal name here in Narnia, becau-"

"Because we had a queen named Susan once. Yes, I said that" he then turned his head a little to see her straight into the eyes "You sound concerned about it. What is the matter?"

"Tell me about this queen, please"

"All right" he said, and then continued talking:

_Queen Susan reigned over Narnia many, many years ago, more than I can even know. She was one of the Queens of Old and she is almost a lost and antique legend, but we all Narnians know she was real._

_She was known here as the Gentle queen, for her kindness. She was also very famous because it is told that she was the most beautiful woman, not only in Narnia, but in the world. There even was a war against Tashbaan because Rabadash, the son of the Tisroc wanted to force her to marry him, but that is another story…_

_It is told that Queen Susan was not a native of Narnia, but a foreigner from the land of Spare Oom. She and her other three siblings, the High King Peter, King Edmund and Queen Lucy saved our land from the White Witch and brought spring back to Narnia._

_They disappeared for over a millennium but were summoned back to Narnia by an ancestor of mine, the great king Caspian X and together fought against the Telmarines, who were led by the ruthless king Miraz. That was a dark time when the Telmarines were not one with the Narnians as we are now and they were a terrible threat to them._

_Queen Susan the Gentle was a very brave woman and I've heard she was the best archer in all Narnia._

_But then, out of the sudden, she disappeared and never came back…_

"I am aware this is a very poor way of telling the story of one of the greatest queens Narnia has ever had" he said apologetically "but I've never been gifted with the ability of being a good story teller, that's an ability that rarely runs in my fami-"

"It can't be…" Bridget whispered very soft, so Fevian wouldn't hear, but the ears of the prince were as sharp as his tongue and he did listen to her.

"Is something wrong, my lady?" he stopped the horse and turned to look at her and saw shock painted all over he face.

On any other occasion she would have yelled at him for calling her _my lady_, once again, but she was thinking of more important things at the moment. Besides, she was now beginning to understand that really was a habit hard to die for him, since he was a prince and he was raised and educated to treat women politely.

Then with an obvious note of concern he asked: "What is wrong, Bridget?"

_Oh, my God! It can't be!_

But it was way too obvious: Queen Susan, the Gentle, was no other woman than her own mother, the woman she had called crazy, lunatic, insane… for telling so fervently stories of a magical land that didn't exist… But now it seemed that destiny really was enjoying the task of proving her wrong: She used to believe Narnia didn't exist, and there she was. She didn't actually think king Caspian was real, and Fevian had just spoken about him and it turned out he was a descendant of him!

Also, all the time her mother told her and her sisters about the kings and queens of Narnia, Bridget always used to imagine her mother named them liker her dead siblings in their honor, like if it was a way for her to remember them by. But no, it turned out they really were the kings and queens of Narnia! Otherwise why would Fevian know the names of her uncle Peter, uncle Ed and aunt Lucy? And another madness was that she ended up in that awful land of strange things and fantasy because she blew a bloody horn! The same bloody horn she had inside one of the pockets from the dress Fevian bought her.

"Bridget…" the prince said, but received no answer. She was deeply sunken in her thoughts "Bridget… Bee!"

The girl looked straight into his chocolate eyes and felt she was about to faint. She had just realized too many things in a very short amount of time.

"I'm sorry" she whispered "I'm feeling a little dizzy. It happens to me sometimes, but I will be fine in a couple of minutes. Don't worry"

He stared at her for a quite some time. The prince of Narnia was no fool, he knew there was something going on with this strange girl sitting next to him and it wasn't just dizziness. He would have insisted on what was going on, but he didn't want to pester and be a nuisance to her because she truly did seem dizzy and paler than she normally was.

If this girl thought she was making a fool out of him, she was wrong. She didn't want to tell him the truth about what was bothering her and making her feel so uneasy. And he believed Bridget thought he hadn't yet noticed she was always hiding something in one pocket.

But he understood. They had just met for a day, there was no way she was going to trust him right away and neither would he trust her so fast. But she appeared to be a good person and an innocent young woman.

He was sure, though, we would learn all the truth about her soon.

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"Breathtaking" wasn't a word that was even close to describing what an extraordinary sight Cair Paravel was. Bridget had never seen anything like it before and she never dreamed she would one day.

Bridget thought Narnia wasn't such a great place, but she had to admit seeing the beautiful castle of Cair Paravel had already made worth the travel to that world.

It stood high and mighty on an island very close to the rest of the continent that was Narnia. A huge bridge joined both lands and when they were crossing it, Bridget felt it was impossible to keep her mouth from hanging open.

She was marveled, and Fevian was glad she was, because for about the last thirty minutes before they reached Cair Paravel he had been chattering about how wonderful the place was. Of course, Bee didn't think it was half as great as the prince said it was, but now that it was before her own eyes she knew his description had been very modest.

"Well, what do you think now that you are actually seeing it?"

"I'm at loss of words, Fevian. This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen"

"It is the most beautiful place I've ever seen, as well. And even though I live here, I am still marveled by its beauty every day of my life"

It was clear in his eyes he also found that place to be astounding. Being a good story teller was not an ability running through his veins, but but being able to notice beauty and feel captivated by it, definitely was an ability he sure had.

It was noon and the sun shining high in the sky, covering the white castle with its light and making it shine whit such splendor, that it seemed almost as if the castle owned light itself.

There was a small village surrounding the castle, also beautiful with nice houses, but it seemed very plain and without charm compared to the wonder that was the castle.

They reached the royal stables and to leave _Eclipse_ there, the pitch-black horse of the prince.

Some servants and maids approached the prince in the blink of an eye, offering him water and food among many other things. All of them addressing him as "your highness" or "your majesty". Maybe that was the reason one voice stood up from all those voices when he loudly called him: "Fevian!"

A tall man entered the stables, with gray hair and a thin, wrinkled face. He was wearing elegant clothes of a vivid red tone. He had long hair, it reached his shoulders but opposite the slightly messy hair of the prince, this man's hair was so neat, clean and perfectly combed as well as the well cut beard that reached his chest.

Bridget thought he surely was someone close to the prince, because he was the only person in that place who dared to call him by his name. Aside from her, of course, but Fevian had told her to call him by his name and she merely obliged.

The girl secretly thanked him for that because it would have been very irritating to call him "you highness" all the time, and there was this thing she had about not wanting to feel inferior to anyone else. So she happily called him "Fevian" since he told her to.

"Fevian!" the man repeated. He also had the same unusual accent the prince had.

"Melvus"

"You mother demanded to see you the instant you arrived! She is not happy about these escapades of yours" he warned him "And I may say this time neither is your father. Five days, my boy!" he said as if it was and outrageous thing "You agreed you would never leave for more than two days! It is dangerous for the prince of Narnia to be wandering around like that without and escort!"

"You know I need no escort, my friend" the prince answered in such a cheeky manner and then bowed to take a pair of daggers he had hidden inside his boots. Bridget hadn't even noticed he had those daggers with him.

The prince turned to the girl and said: "Bridget, let me introduce you to Melvus, my tutor"

The man turned to face her and for the first time since he arrived he seemed to be more clamed, smiled and made a small reverence to her.

"A pleasure, my lady"

_Here we go again..._

"A pleasure to meet you, too" she simply answered.

Fevian handed the reins of the horse and the pair of daggers to a servant and then took Bridget's hand.

"Come, it's time you meet my parents"

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**I really hope you like this chapter, because I don't think is the best so far and it was very, very, very hard for me to write this one as I said before.**

**So now they finally arrived at Cair Paravel and in the next chapter there will be some introductions to new characters such as: the nice and kind King Tavian VII (Fevian's father), Queen Alva (Fevian's mother... she really is some piece of work) and a little surprise the queen has for her son: Lady Cara.**

**Please leave a review! :)**


	7. The royal parents

**Hello people! I'm deeply sorry, because it took me quite some time to upload a new chapter... once again.**

**I promise that I try to write a new chapter as fast as I can, but I've been kind of busy with school and all. Now I finally have summer vacations, so there will be plenty of time for to write... I hope.**

**I hope you like this new chapter. I kind of extended it from the original idea I had for this one, so I'm sorry, but lady Isicara will be introduced until the next chapter. They kind of talk about her in this one and we get to see a reaction from Fevian once this particular lady is mentioned.**

**I hope there is no grammatic mistakes or anything weird... because I wrote this around 3 in the morning!**

**Anyway... Enjoy :)**

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**Chapter 7**

**"The royal parents"**

Bridget came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and drying her hair with another after just having had an extremely relaxing bubble bath. She realized until she was there, surrounded by warm water, scented oils and bubbles how stressed she actually had been during the past few days. Traveling to another world was no easy experience. But thankfully that marvelous bath had done wonders for her and she was finally soothed, feeling more at ease, less troubled.

And not to mention she was starting to feel very dirty if not smelly, even, which was seemingly uncomfortable for the girl. Bridget was pretty much obsessed, as her mother once said, with tidiness, cleanness and everything that involved order and keeping things as neat and perfect as possible.

She was very thankful that the prince of Narnia had insisted on giving her one of the best rooms in the castle, which included the huge bathroom with a bathtub that could even be considered as a swimming pool! It was tremendously big! But she had really enjoyed that fact and had really appreciated what Fevian had done for her. Again.

Even though she was slightly angry with the young man, because even though he gave her this astounding room and had laid a new dress on top of her bed for the dinner she was going to have that night with his family, he had taken her to meet his parents, the monarchs of Narnia, wearing a nice dress, but not one nice enough to be presented to them as a friend of the prince. She looked like a commoner, who hadn't had enough time to sleep, hadn't had a bath in a few days and probably smelled like a pig.

The king had been kind to her, but his mother had disapproved her entire appearance completely, looking at her as if she was a small, insignificant bug. For her she was nothing more than a street rat, someone who had no business hanging with her son and furthermore, someone who shouldn't be staying at the castle as a guest of honor.

Bridget thought of when she met Fevian's parents, and she couldn't avoid seeing the whole scene in her head again.

* * *

Right after the girl met Melvus, the prince's tutor, he dragged her to the throne room, because he wanted her to meet his parents. He seemed excited about introducing this new, strange friend of his to the king and queen. Bridget on the other hand wasn't so sure it was a good idea.

"Father. Mother" the young man said once he opened a pair of huge doors and walked into the throne room. "Melvus told me you wanted to…"

"Fevian! Where, on Aslan's mane, have you been!" his mother yelled at him, interrupting the prince's sentence.

"…see me" the prince finished.

"I was against these escapades of yours since the very beginning! I told your father we should have never given you permission to leave the castle on your own!"

Fevian looked apologetically at Bridget for a moment, who was stunned by the sheer volume of the queen's voice. The prince knew she was making quite an impression to the girl.

"Mother, I am fine. Sure, I did disobey you and I want to apologize for that. It will never happen again"

"That is what you say all the time! Every single time you break a rule you claim you will never do it again!" and she sighed. "This wouldn't have happened if we had sent him to a boarding school in Telmar as my parents did with my brothers. He would have learned how to behave, and follow rules and he wouldn't be so… so… rebellious! But you wanted to hire a tutor for him instead!" she yelled, looking a the king.

The queen was furious, it wasn't hard to tell. She seemed to be a very beautiful woman, with strong but gorgeous features. Impressive dark eyes, very much alike Fevian's, a curtain of brown hair falling down her shoulders and her back. But now, that she was yelling so much and an angered expression was painted upon her face, to Bridget the queen didn't seem as beautiful as she actually was.

"My, dear" the king spoke for the first time, looking straight into his wife's eyes. "Do calm down. The boy made a mistake, yes, but it was the last time" This last few lines, he said them looking sternly at his son. He seemed relaxed and he was speaking in this same manner, but it was clear he was giving a warning to his son. That truly had been the very last time the prince disobeyed a rule.

"Do you understand, Fevian? It was the last time" the king emphasized.

The prince nodded and the king gave his son a warm smile.

It no longer was a mystery where Fevian's easy-going attitude came from. The prince had an appearance similar to that of the queen, but it was clear as water that in character he was more like the king.

"Now, apologize to your mother"

"I am deeply sorry, mother"

The queen turned her head, not to see him and said: "You are no son of mine until you learn how a prince should behave"

Something in the prince's eyes seemed to almost mock what his mother just had said. Even thought Bridget was looking at him out of the corner of her eye, because she was standing next to him, she was sure the prince wanted to laugh at his mother's drama.

It was very uncomfortable for Bridget to be there, in the middle of a family discussion, but literally it had been for the other three people as if during their argument, she was not standing there, holding the prince's hand.

The girl didn't know how to act around the king and the queen, and even though she hated to feel inferior to other people, she had to admit there was something magnificent and graceful about these two monarchs that actually made her feel inferior.

For the first time since they entered the room, Fevian appeared to be aware of her hand in his and her presence in the room.

"Oh, I was extremely rude" he said more to himself, than to his parents. "Father. Mother. I would like to introduce you my new friend, lady Bridget"

"It is a pleasure, my lady" the king answered and gave her a smile, which Bridget answered to with a smile as well. "I am King Tavian and this is my wife, Queen Alva"

The queen only looked at her coldly and asked: "Bridget? What a strange name you have, girl. What is your title?"

"I don't—do not have one, your highness"

"No title? Then what are you doing in this castle if you are neither royalty nor nobility?"

Fevian could sense Bridget was intimidated by his mother.

"Are you a servant, then?"

"Mother, would you please stop being so rude to her? She is not a servant. She is my guest, and as I told you before, she is a friend of mine"

"Well, lady Bridget, you honor us with your presence in our castle. Tonight we shall have dinner together" the king said in a friendly tone which made the girl a little more welcomed, even though the queen would have her out of her sight and the castle right away, if she could. But now she wasn't only the prince's guest. It appeared she was also the king's guest for dinner.

* * *

That was why Bridget was readying herself for dinner with the royal family of Narnia. She wasn't very happy about it, because if she could avoid the queen, she would do it by all means possible, but she was going to be there. And some other people, too, apparently.

Fevian had mentioned to her that Melvus, his tutor, was invited to dine with them always, for he was almost a second father to the prince, hence a member of the family to him.

Some friends visiting from Telmar were also going to be there. And the queen had made and emphasis in saying to her son that Lady Isicara was in Cair Paravel to visit him. Apparently that was something important for both the queen and the prince. She had sensed that in the way Queen Alva had mentioned the girl's name and in the way Fevian's eyes had gleamed and his lips had formed a smile.

Soon she would meet this Isicara lady and find out what was so important about her.

Bridget tried on the white dress resting on top of her bed. It was simple dress, but far more elegant than the olive dress she had worn before. This one was decorated with silver embroidery and had some ribbons decorating the sleeves in the same color. It was damn odyssey for Bridget to find out how to wear that dress, with all the fastenings and other complications of a Narnian dress. But Bridget was a smart girl –and stubborn, as well- who wasn't going to be defeated by a bloody dress.

She braided her hair and wore the pair of earrings the prince left besides the dress. She couldn't help a smile from appearing in her lips at the thought of the prince not only concerning himself in getting her an appropriate dress, but also in getting the right pair of earrings that would match the dress. How very thoughtful of him.

Bridget looked at herself in the big mirror next to the bathroom and couldn't recognize herself. It was a childish thought, but when she saw her image reflected in the glassy surface, she could believe that the young lady she was seeing there was a princess.

The girl heard someone knocking. Fevian had told her he was going to escort her himself to this fancy dinner of theirs. It was surely him on the other side of the door.

So with no more delay, she hurried towards the door to open it.

* * *

**Ok, that was my seventh chapter.**

**Please leave some comments, people! If I don't know what you think of this story there is no way I can improve it, change things, add some of your ideas (because if you have some I will gladly add them to the story if the fit with what I already have)...**

**Without reviews and comments it's like walking blindly, you know? I have nothing to hold on to, no reference point.**

**Fevian and Bee beg for your comments :) Well, probably none of them would like to beg, but... they nicely ask you to leave a review :D**

**So do I!**


	8. Dinner

**Hello to you all! I'm so happy because I was indeed able to update soon and also because this is the longest chapter so far! 2,000 words! ****Maybe I'll try to keep the next chapters about this same lenght :)**

**And I don't know you might be wondering how old the characters are in the story, but just in case there are doubts, here you go:**

**Bridget - 16 years old**

**Fevian - 19 years old (soon to be 20)**

**Melvus - 52 years old**

**King Tavian VII - 44 years old**

**Queen Alva - 40 years old**

**Lady Isicara (Cara) - 18 years old**

**So, same as always, I hope you enojoy this chapter. There is a little something that happens in this chapter that will later lead to the start of the adventure! Yay! :)**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**"Dinner"**

The young man she had met a few days ago was now wearing the appropriate attire for a prince. He no longer wore the brown worn-out trousers and the dirty white shirt she had seen him using when she met him.

Fevian was wearing a shirt in a deep wine red color, which was made of what could be the most expensive-looking fabric the girl had ever laid eyes on. It was a beautiful shirt, and the color suited him really well, a great contrast against his tanned skin.

He had some dark trousers and black boots, but clean ones, not like the ridding boots he had been using for the past few days. His hair was still a little messy, but that seemed to be the trademark of the prince, who apparently refused to comb his hair like his father or Melvus did and preferred to have it in a much more natural way.

"For Aslan's mane, Bridget" he barely managed to say as the girl opened the door. "You look great. Narnian dresses definitely suit you"

She accepted the compliment without voicing her inner thoughts about what she really believed about Narnian dresses suiting her. She didn't want to look good in Narnian dresses, she didn't want to be in a Narnian castle and even less to have a Narnian dinner with the king and queen of Narnia! Especially the Narnian queen! It was just too much Narnia for her! She desperately wanted some England! Some home.

But in the middle of all those thoughts, some remorse reached Bridget and she felt bad about complaining so much about Narnia. No matter how badly she wanted to go home, she wasn't having such a hard time in Narnia. Fevian was doing all in his power to make it a good experience for her and they barely knew each other! His kindness was something Bridget was beginning to appreciate greatly, even though his boldness and cheeky attitude had bothered her at the beginning.

She managed to smile in reply for the prince's compliment, because she was very nervous about the dinner they were about to go. Bridget had never had such a feeling before. It felt almost as if she was heading directly to a snake pitch.

"But you seem somehow…" he paused, trying to find the right that could best describe her at the moment. "Disturbed"

_Tell him you're sick or tired and want to rest! Tell him any bloody thing… but don't go!_

Fevian looked at her expecting an answer. And she provided him one. The real one.

"I don't know how to act around royalty!" she whispered, because she couldn't find it in herself to speak louder. All the resolve and courage she had inside herself all the time seemed to have vanished entirely.

_Perfect timing! _She thought ironically.

"You don't have to act, just be you" Fevian told her encouragingly. "Besides, they won't be expecting you to behave as if you were royalty. They know you're not, so they won't be expecting great manners or extreme politeness as they do from the rest of the guests"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Just do whatever you see me do. Except from the bowing, don't copy that. Women do curtsies" he said with a charming smile.

"All right" she said, even thought she wasn't really convinced that was going to work as good as the prince believed it would.

Fevian bent his arm for her to take, gave her another of his charming smiles and said jokingly, trying to imitate her accent:

"It is a pleasure to escort you, my lady"

Well, at least he had managed to make her smile now. Bridget played along, did a little curtsy and put her arm around his.

"Not bad. That was one fine curtsy, my lady."

* * *

It was the largest table Bridget had ever seen in her life! There were about 30 guests, which Fevian had introduced to her as Lord Whatever-his-name-was from Telmar, his wife and two sons, another young lord from some other land in the south, a woman coming from Archenland to visit the queen, and so on. But every single people sitting at that table had at least one drop of noble or royal blood.

And then there was this lady Isicara from Telmar. She was the daughter of a nobleman who apparently was a close friend to the king of Telmar. She had lived her entire life in the castle and she was raised by the same governess who had raised the two daughters of the king. She was practically a princess. And Bridget had noticed the way Fevian had looked at her.

Now she understood why the queen had mentioned this particular guest above all the others and why Fevian had been interested when his mother mentioned her. It was obvious she was an extreme beauty, with very exotic features. She had big brown eyes, long chestnut hair cascading down her shoulders and her back in long, loose curls. But it was her gaze the most attractive feature from the lady. At least that was what seemed to captivate every single man in that room. Or the unmarried ones, at least.

Fortunately for Bridget, the beautiful lady was sitting on the other side, near the head of the table, where the king was sitting. After talking with Fevian a little about themselves, she was able to ask the prince a some questions about lady Isicara.

"Cara and I have been friends for as long as I can remember" the prince answered. "Her family lives in Telmar, but they always come during summer and at New Year's Eve to visit us. Do you see that lord there, with the big dark beard? That is lord Bazar, Cara's father. And the woman in front him, the one with the curly hair, is her mother, lady Eilana"

Bridget was starting to feel nosey, asking the prince so much about lady "Cara", but for some reason she wanted to keep asking about her. But the prince didn't give her the chance to come up with another question, because he began to ask her what she thought of the food.

She had just finished eating some fancy soup made out of a weird vegetable, but now the next course was a fish Fevian told her would be one of the best meals she would ever have. Obviously, she thought he was being a tad exaggerated.

Bridget quickly looked to her side to see which fork out of the three that lay next to the plate was the one the prince took to eat his own fish. She took the same fork Fevian had taken and then tasted the fish.

"My God, this is delicious!" she smiled, and the chewed some more. "What did you said this is?"

"It is Goldenfish, from the shores of the Great Eastern Ocean. So, is it as good as I told you it was?" he spoke looking at her, as if wanting to confirm she had the same opinion he had about the taste of the Goldenfish.

It seemed the prince had the ability to express the true greatness of things moderately. It first appeared as if he was bragging about it, and other people wouldn't believe it really was half as great as he said it was. But then he proved the others it was better than he had described it. First it had been the sight of Cair Paravel and then the marvelous taste of the Goldenfish. Bridget couldn't wait what was going to be next.

"You said it yourself, Fevian." she smiled, still enjoying the taste of the fish lingering in her mouth. "It really was the best meal I've ever tasted"

Bridget couldn't believe she was actually having a great time, opposite to the nightmare she feared that dinner would be. But unfortunately for her, she was sitting near the other head of the table, where the queen was sitting.

"So…" the queen spoke for what seemed to be the first time during dinner. Both Fevian and Bridget looked at the queen, as if wanting to figure out what she wanted. "Oh, I forgot your name" she said, this time speaking to Bridget.

"Bridget, your highness"

"Yes, Bridget. How old are you?"

"Sixteen"

"Oh, you are very young!" Bridget didn't know if being young was something positive or negative, but by the way the queen said it, it sounded as if it was a flaw. "You look a bit older. For a moment I thought you were"

Again it sounded as another flaw.

"No"

"For the appearance you have and they way you speak and move I reckon your mother never hired a nurse or governess to teach you to be a lady. Am I right?"

Bridget didn't know where the queen was heading to with this conversation, but she sensed nothing good was coming from it. And even worse, there were no other people talking around them anymore. Only the voices of the queen and the girl were hear there.

"Yes…"

"You were raised by your own mother, then?

"Yes"

"What an atrocity!" she almost yelled. Bridget might as well have told the queen she was about to murder someone and she was sure she would have gotten the same reaction from Queen Alva. "Young ladies should be raised by nurses and governesses to acquire decency and etiquette"

"Well…" she whispered. She had no idea what to answer.

"They also learn to be more eloquent. And tell me, darling; are you at all able to answer with more than one word?"

"Yes…" she whispered again, and immediately got a teasing look from the queen. She had to speak more. "I am able to do so, your highness"

"You speak so little and so quietly I did not notice until now that strange accent of yours, child. What part of Narnia are you from?"

"Well, I'm not from Narnia, your highn…" she began to explain, but was interrupted by the queen.

"Do not beat around the bush. Where do you come from?"

Never in her life had she felt such an urge to run away from a room. She was nervous, hesitant and felt she would soon start to cry if the queen didn't quit asking her so many questions. Even thought it wasn't really the questions what bothered her, it was the way they were being asked.

"I come from a place called London. It's in England"

"That is very odd. I have never heard of such a country. Where is this _Igland_ of yours exactly?" she spoke trying to imitate the way Bridget had pronounced the name of her homeland. Also she said it as if she didn't believe this country was real.

"I… hmm- Well…" Who to explain where England was in reference to Narnia? Not even she knew that!

"Speak at once, girl!"

Bridget felt she wasn't even able to speak anymore. Everybody in the table was staring at her and she couldn't find it in herself to say anything else to the queen.

Fortunately for her she didn't need to, because someone else spoke for her.

"Mother, they must have given me the wrong invitation. I had no idea we had come here for an interrogatory, I thought we had come here for dinner" the prince spoke to his mother, looking straight into her eyes, with a defiance Bridget hadn't seen in him before.

"I just want to get to know your guest" Queen Alva said, as if she was innocent of whatever her son was accusing her of.

"No, you are investigating her" Fevian scolded, his voice losing its usual charm, gaining more sternness, maybe even some hint of anger. And his dark eyes, more fierce than ever. "You want to find out what is it about this _commoner_ that I could have found interesting enough to bring her here. You say she is the impolite one, mother, but look at yourself… hear the way you speak to her"

Queen Alva was outraged about what her son just said to her. And he had done it in front of all their guests!

The prince didn't even wait to hear any reply from his mother. Then he looked at Bridget, who sat next to him in utter shock, same as the rest of the people sitting in that table.

Fevian took Bridget's hand to help her up.

"Come on, Bridget. It's our time to go" he said only to her, and then faced all the other people reunited there for dinner. "It was a pleasure sharing dinner with all of you, we will see you tomorrow. Good night"

And they both left the great dinning room.

* * *

**So, what do you think?**

**When I think of Queen Alva in this chapter, I personally think I've created a b-i-t-c-h, don't you think? But I love the way Fevian stood up for Bee :)**

**And lady Isicara was finally introducted into the story. Now she is just the pretty girl, but later she will get bigger role.**

**Please tell me what you think. What you loved. What you hated. Ideas. Whatever, just comment!**


	9. The promise of the prince

**I'm very, very, VERY sorry for taking so freaking long to post this chapter! I truly am!**

**I wanted to post this about two months ago but out of lack of time and inspiration I didn't. I will do my best to continue posting on a regular basis instead of taking so much time.**

**This was a very complicated chapter for me write because many things are involving to shape the story.**

**I hope you like and enjoy it! :D**

**This is the longest chapter so far (2, 500 words) but I think I owed that to everyone reading this, if there's still someone...**

**

* * *

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**Chapter 9**

**"The promise of the prince"**

Bridget left the dinning room hand in hand with the prince and with teary eyes. She felt like crying like a child, but she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Fevian. Her pride, or what was left of it thanks to Queen Alva, was the reason of it. She never cried in public. Ever. Bee didn't even remember if someone ever saw her cry. Perhaps only her mother when she was a little girl, but not anymore. If she wanted to cry, she swallowed all her tears until there was no one around her. Only then, she would cry and sometimes when she finally was alone she didn't feel like crying anymore.

And this time wouldn't be an exception to a life-long habit she had, so she once again swallowed her tears and put on a brave face to cover how broken, lonely and sad she really felt at that moment.

Now more than ever she wanted to return home. But she had no idea how on earth she was going to do it.

"Bridget, slow down" Fevian whispered next to her.

Only then she realized the presence of the prince next to her after the time she spent lost in her thoughts. Fevian had already let go of her hand, and now he was trying to stop the girl, who started to walk quickly down a corridor aimlessly, going nowhere. The sadness and the shame she had felt when she exited the dinning room disappeared in an instant, allowing anger to replace them.

"My mother had…" the prince started but she didn't stop walking.

Fevian hurried to catch up with the raging girl and placed a hand on her shoulder to turn her so she would face him. He was kind of surprised to see her so angry, but he knew she had all the right to feel that way.

"My mother had no right to treat you the way she did" he started again. "I am deeply sorry, Bridget. I feel it is my duty to apologize in her place. And I do hope she personally offers an apology to later"

She was looking daggers at him with a gaze he had never seen in her eyes until that moment. Not even the day they met, and at that time she behaved nowhere near nice or kind to him. He slowly took his hand off her shoulder and she continued to walk away from the dinning room and from him.

"If you are intending to return to your bedchamber, my lady, you are going the opposite direction"

Bridget didn't even care that he called her "my lady" again, she was already angry so there was no problem. But his words made their effect instantly, because at the moment she heard that, she froze right on the spot and turned to face him.

"But I'll be glad to walk you there, Bee" the prince said with a smile.

He was relieved to see that she kind of half smiled to him, even though she clearly was still upset. Not with him, but she was still upset.

They walked through many halls and staircases to reach Bridget's room. It was a complicated route and Bee tried to pay attention so she could walk alone in the castle without needing to be escorted by Fevian all the time. Not that it bothered her, but she wasn't sure if maybe it bothered him.

"We have reached your quarters, my lady" he said teasingly as he opened the door for her, accompanying his statement with his characteristic cheeky smile.

Bridget appreciated the fact that he was trying to cheer her up a bit so she didn't complain about him calling her my lady again.

"Thanks, Fevian" she whispered, walking past the prince without even looking him in the eyes.

Bridget entered the room and closed the door behind her but the prince didn't go away after she did that. He waited there. He knew there was something really troubling the girl and he was sure that it was much more than his mother's awful behavior towards her that night.

He then heard something. A sound so difficult to listen he almost had to stop breathing to hear it clearly. Sobbing. He could her Bridget's sobs coming from the other side of the door.

The prince raised his had to knock, so that he could ask her what was wrong. He really wanted to comfort her but he knew it would be too straightforward and even indecent of him to do so. Not only was it inappropriate to be with Bridget alone in her room at such a late hour, but they also didn't know each other well enough so that he could come in her room when she clearly wanted to be left alone to cry at peace.

That was why he lowered his hand and walked away.

* * *

Even tough she was feeling as miserable as was humanly possible; Bridget had to admit she had a fabulous night's sleep. The room had a perfect temperature to sleep well, not too cold and not too warm, and the bed was amazingly comfortable. It was big, it was cozy and the sheets were so soft!

She wasn't even sure at what time she woke up, but by the look of the sun it was before noon.

Following her stomach's protest, she dressed up quickly with one of the many dresses Fevian ordered to be sewn for her by the palace's tailors, and began to wander around in the castle until she finally found the kitchen.

There she found a young servant girl who gladly prepared her some pancakes covered with delicious strawberry-flavored syrup. It was quite a long time since she ate such delicious pancakes. Only her granny Diane, her dad's mother, used to make her the best meals ever (pancakes included). She truly was some sort of kitchen goddess, but it was quite some time now since she passed away.

The girl who cooked them, Dina, was an Archelander, Bridget learned when she began to talk to her. Her parents were natives from a land above Narnia named Archeland, but they decided to move to Narnia in order to get her daughter a better life. They were really poor back in Archeland and they were lucky enough to get jobs for the three of them in Cair Paravel. Apparently King Tavian was a generous ruler and a very gentle man, opposite to his "charming" wife.

"How old are you, Dina?" Bridget asked just when she was finishing her pancakes.

"I'm fifteen years old, my lady"

"Please stop calling me my lady. I've told you, you can call me Bridget or Bee, if you like"

"You have a very beautiful name, Bridget"

It seemed everybody in that world had a different accent even though they all spoke the same language. There was Fevian with his strong, thick accent, that if compared to a language from her world, Bridget thought sounded a bit like Spanish or Italian maybe. And Dina with her soft way of speaking, delicate, without such a strong pronunciation as the prince, almost as if she was singing the words out of her mouth. But they both had in common this strange yet nice way of saying her name, it sounded different pronounced by an English accent.

Bridget thought for a moment she liked better the way Narnians spoke her name as the people of England did, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she kicked it out, regretting even thinking about it.

"You too have a pretty name, Dina. Is it a common name from your country?" Bridget said, bringing her mind back to her conversation with the young servant girl.

"Yes. My grandmother was named Dina, and my parents decided to name me after…"

Dina suddenly stopped talking and made a quick reverence to someone standing behind Bridget. She turned to see who it was and saw the gorgeous woman of exotic beauty Fevian barely could keep his eyes off the night before.

"Lady Isicara. Good morning" Dina said, still with her head down, afraid to look the lady in her eyes. "How may I help you?"

"Good morning, girl" she answered, with an even thicker accent than the one Fevian had when he spoke. Maybe it was because she wasn't a Narnian Telmarine like him, but a Telmarine from Telmar "I just wanted to come and let you know that his majesty the prince and I are going to have a picnic this afternoon in the woods. Please prepare a basket with some bread, cheese and champagne."

"Of course, my lady"

"And don't forget to put some fruits in the basket as well"

"Yes, my lady"

Lady Isicara smiled at Dina and then looked at Bridget with a look she couldn't quite figure out and without anything else to say, the lady left.

"She… is a nice woman" Bridget said sarcastically.

"She is very kind, I've heard"

"She's not as kind as the say, I've seen"

Dina laughed at her remark, but quickly put a hand on her mouth to stop laughing because it wasn't right for a servant to laugh about a lady.

"So, Dina" Bridget started. "Do you want me to help you prepare the basket for the lovebirds?"

Dina laughed again and nodded.

It was nice for Bridget to be with Dina and talk with her. She was sure they would soon become friends and as for the servant girl, it was nice to talk to someone in the castle who treated her nicely, like Bridget did without even knowing her very well.

It was past midday and Bridget was still in the kitchen with Dina, talking and laughing with her when Fevian came in looking for her.

"Bee, here you are!"

Dina immediately made a reverence as the prince walked into the kitchen.

"My prince" she muttered.

"Good afternoon" Fevian said to Dina, but then turned to face Bridget "Would you like to take a walk with me?"

"Yes, sure"

* * *

The prince and the girl had been walking for quite some time in the gardens of Cair Paravel and in the apple orchards. The orchards had dreamlike, stunningly gorgeous trees filled with bright-red apples hanging over their heads.

Fevian had intended to have this walk with Bridget so he could get to know her better, and maybe he would understand what was going through his friend's head.

He asked about her family, her home, what she liked to do, to eat… he asked about anything he could think of and Bee gladly answered all his questions. _All_ of them.

She also got to ask some questions about the prince's life and the two of them felt great as they were walking back to the castle, for they knew each other a little better.

"I never thought you would believe me so quickly" Bridget said still a bit surprised about the good reaction she got from the prince as she told him her story. Sure, there were a few shocked faces but it was an overall good reaction. Much better than the one she had expected. "I had been thinking a lot of how I was going to explain this whole mess to you without making it sound… well, just plain stupid"

"No, I still find it crazy" Fevian said "But you haven't given me a reason not to believe what you say. I didn't know if you were trustworthy at some point, because I was sure you were hiding something, Bee. But now that I know what that was…"

"You find me trustworthy again" she smiled.

"I do" the prince answered, still thinking a lot about what Bridget told him just a couple of minutes ago.

To sum all up, she was from another world, more specifically, England. She was the daughter of a disappeared Narnian Queen who handed her magical horn to her, which she blew and ended up in Narnia without a way to go back.

It was quite a strange story, but again, he didn't doubt Bridget's words because she was someone worth trusting. He knew that now. He had been surprised, of course, and he probably displayed some interesting facial expressions as Bee told him everything. And by Aslan, what wasn't possible with some Narnian magic?

"So, you've tried to return by blowing the horn again?"

"Yes, that was the first thing I did. As you can see" she gestured to all of herself "It didn't work"

"So, I can see blowing is just a one-way travel" he said with a cheeky smile.

"Don't joke about this!" Bridget couldn't believe that he even teased her in situations like that one "I really want to go back home!"

"We gave you such a good impression?"

Again, that cheeky smile and the sarcasm!

"No, this is a nice place… But I miss my mother and Alice and Caroline. I'm just not used to this world"

"I'll help you, I promise"

"But how?"

"I am not sure. My only idea right now is the old lamppost. Legend tells your mother and her siblings entered Narnia from some place around that lamp. Maybe we can find you a way back from there"

"It's a good idea, it might work" Bridget said filled with excitement. At last a chance to return home! She didn't want to sound too rushed to leave, but she couldn't help but ask "When could go?"

"Not soon. My parents are still upset that I left the other time and there is going to be a ball held here in Cair Paravel in about two weeks. I have to stay here at least that time"

Bridget felt a little down with that, but she could see in her friend's eyes that he actually wanted to help her. She already survived a couple of days there, she could hang on a little longer. She just had to avoid the Queen to survive…

"I promise you, Bridget, as soon as the ball is over and the guests leave, you and I are going to leave as well. I promise I will help you"

The prince's dark eyes were fixed on her as he spoke that oath and she knew he wasn't' going to break that promise.

"Thank you, Fevian"

He smiled and made a small head reverence to her.

"You welcome, my princess"

"Really?" Bridget exclaimed, annoyed. "We just got passed the _my lady_ stage and now you are going to start calling me _my princess_?"

Fevian couldn't help to burst out laughing and at the end neither could her.

"Well, Bridget, you are a princess. But if you don't want me to call you that way, I shall not do it"

"Hey, could we keep this entire thing as a secret? Please?"

"If you want to"

"I do"

"Fine" he said with a smile. "Now, let's go back. I am quite late for an appointment I have" he spoke with excitement and his smile grew even bigger.

"Oh, we wouldn't want you to be late for your _appointment_..."

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**I hope everyone likes this one.**

**So now Fevian knows the whole thing... I really didn't know how to write the scene where Bridget spills the beans, so I left it for you to imagine as well as Fevian's "display of interesting facial expressions".**

**In the next chapter we'll have Fevian and Cara's picnic (3) as well as**** a little treat for Bee, which comes along with fierce green eyes, tanned skin, dark hair, more sexy looks and a turban :)**

******Please tell me what you think. What you loved. What you hated. Ideas. Whatever, just comment**  



	10. Visitors

**New chapter! Uploaded sooner than ever! I think after the long wait I kind of owed this to you all, lovely people, reading this :)**

**Thanks to Zanheim Panda for telling me to make Cara less of a bitch and more like a human. Now you will all see why she behaved the way she did in her previous appearance in this story and I'll show you a more human Cara here. Thanks again!**

**Also thanks to ElvesWizardsCentaursOhmy for giving me a while ago the idea of adding Calormene to this story. Surprise, surprise! I won't tell anyone of you why they will be important in this story :)**

**And just in case you're wondering this chapter is 2, 200 words long. Just long enough to entertain you for a while :P**

**Now, I'll shut up and let you read...**

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**Chapter 10**

**"Visitors"**

She was walking around the apple orchards waiting for him. It was a gorgeous place to be in because during summer, those trees looked more beautiful than ever. That was why she loved to visit Cair Paravel during that season. It wasn't the same when she and her family came in New Year's Eve. During winter the trees seemed dead, colorless.

"Cara!"

She turned around only to find an ecstatic Fevian running towards her. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.

"I am so sorry to be late" the prince said apologetically.

"You are here, that is what matters"

"Shall we?"

Fevian smiled and offered the lady his arm. She took it gladly and they went to the stables to fetch horses and take the basket Dina had for them there.

They rode and left Cair Paravel behind, heading to a small clearing they always visited when Cara was in Narnia. It was like a tradition for them, they used to go there since they were kids. They went to play there most of the times when they were younger, but as time went by they started going there just to share a meal or simply lay on the grass talking about what they've done during those months they hadn't see each other.

"How is life Telmar?" asked Fevian, just when they finished setting everything for the picnic. "Good, I hope"

"Oh, it's all right" she simply said, lowering her eyes, looking to the piece of cheese she held in her hand.

The prince stared at her. After so many years he knew her well enough to know there was something she wasn't telling him.

"Hey" he said softly, raising her chin up with his hand so she would look him in the eyes. "You know you can be yourself around me. With me you don't have to pretend to be the perfect lady or the perfect daughter…"

Cara smiled bitterly. When they were younger she once told Fevian about the awkward relationship she and her parents had. Fevian was well aware of how Lady Eilana and Lord Bazar treated her daughter and the high expectations they always had for her. Cara had to perfect all the time. She was raised to be the perfect lady, to become a perfect wife and later a perfect mother. Cara always tried so hard to satisfy those expectations they had for her.

Lady Eilana was a quiet woman, very polite, she had the temper of the Telmarines, of course, but still she was submissive to her husband and sometimes she was merely a shadow standing next to him.

Lord Bazar, her father, was quite a serious man, hot-tempered, he never spent much time with his family and didn't know his daughter very well. There was also the issue that he always wanted to have a son, and that was one expectation of her father Cara just couldn't comply.

Cara noticed his look and her façade of everything being all right disappeared right away.

"Well, now that you mention it…" started Cara, suddenly looking sad "My father's relationship with King Leovan is not as good as it used to be. You know how they were very close friends, right? I mean, I even grew up with Princess Riava and Princess Nalena as if they were my own sisters! But now there is something going on with the King. I know they have different opinions about some political matter but I do not know what it is, Father has not spoken about it with Mother or with me"

"King Leovan and Lord Bazar not being friends? That is very odd; they were like brothers, right?"

"Yes. And since Father is beginning to lose his place at the court and the influence my family used to have in Telmar, my parents expect me to be the one that can earn it back…"

"Earn it back…?" Fevian asked but he knew exactly what Cara was about to say next.

"Mother has made some arrangements for me to be wed with the elder son of Prince Esdevan… She believes that having me marry the son of the younger brother of the King will gain us our place back, and she is right but… I don't want to marry him!"

Cara began to cry as she told her friend that and Fevian had the impulse to take her in his arms to comfort her. He held her tight, repeating over and over to her friend that everything would be all right.

"You know how it is in Telmar! Marrying someone like Prince Esdevan's son would keep me chained forever! A woman has no voice in a place like that; she's nothing more than a mere piece furniture!"

He knew that very well. His own mother was a Telmarine from Telmar, not like his father, born and raised in Narnia. She had told him many times she was a lucky woman because she now lived in a country with more freedom for women. Especially women of royal blood. In Telmar the only use they had was to look beautiful next to their husbands, provide an heir to the throne and be quiet, peaceful and submissive wives.

He knew those were too many chains for Cara. She had been already chained her entire life and now her parents wanted to throw even more chains on her. It would destroy her. He knew there had to be a way to free her from that arranged marriage.

Fevian began to think that if what Cara's parents wanted was a beneficial place in a palace court thanks to her daughter being married to somebody of royal blood, he could provide that. He would gladly provide that.

* * *

"So tomorrow's ball is in honor of Fevian?"

"Yes! You didn't know that, Bridget?" Dina asked with a curious look on her face "You spend a lot of time with him and he never told it was to celebrate his birthday?"

"He mentioned a while ago he would turn 20 soon… I just didn't realize it would be this soon!"

"Why do you think we are so busy in here?" Dina smiled, preparing some beautiful pastries with colorful berries on top.

There was a huge amount of food being prepared at the kitchens at that moment, because according to the prince there would be people coming to visit from Archenland, Telmar, Calormen, Galma and even the Seven Isles, which Bee understood was a place quite far away.

Bridget had made it a routine to visit her friend in the palace kitchens just to have a chat with her, to help her with some of her work or inviting her to take a walk when she was free.

It had been already around three weeks since Bridget arrived to Narnia and she didn't know how she had managed to survive there so long! She wished this ball would just pass by as soon as possible so she and Fevian could go on that excursion to the lamppost and be gone once and for all.

She had to admit, though, not everything was so bad there in Cair Paravel. Both her friendship with Dina and Fevian had grown. Dina once invited her to meet her parents and they were lovely people. Fevian, on the other hand, showed her the huge library they had in the castle and since then Bee hadn't been able to keep her hands off the books there. On another occasion, he began to teach her how to use a bow, which had been kind of a fiasco at first, but then her talent with that weapon began to emerge. That was why Fevian promised her they would practice soon to keep improving her skills.

The prince also gave her a few lessons on Narnian dances. He told Bee they would come in handy the day of the ball. What surprised the girl was what a good dancer Fevian turned out to be. Not that she thought he couldn't dance, no, it was only surprising to see he was _that_ good. Thanks to his extraordinary abilities to dance, he was a good dance teacher. Bee only hoped she wouldn't make a fool of herself the day of the ball if she was asked to dance by someone.

When Bridget left the kitchens, she was heading to her room to change her clothes. She had helped Dina and the other cooks to finish the pastries and other meals like a cake-like thing made out of potatoes, spices and eggs, or some meat covered in a spicy chocolate sauce! It was so strange, but it tasted like heaven.

So she had several stains on her dress, some parts of it covered in flour. Thankfully she had chosen a pretty simple dress that day, with no decorations on it, just a plain blue dress. She wanted to fix her hair, which now was a messy braid, but her hands were not completely clean, so she didn't touch her head.

Bridget was crossing the main courtyard of the castle, when she heard an approaching noise. She stood to listen carefully.

After a couple of seconds the noise seemed to come closer and closer. That was when she realized it was the sound of galloping horses riding towards the courtyard.

Fevian had told her about the visitors and just by the sight of those newcomers she knew they were from a foreign land. It was a small group of riders, only four of them, all armed and wearing armors that gleamed beneath the sun. Bee supposed they were guards, escorts, because they were surrounding a chariot, from which an old man, a younger one and three ladies descended.

All the men wore turbans around their heads, and the women had their faces covered from the nose down with thin veils. Their clothes were beautifully colored, with many decorations, like small jewels on them. The pointy shoes of the ladies were something Bee liked a lot, as well as the gorgeous armbands and bracelets decorating their hands.

The riders got down from their horses and the one closer to Bridget approached her.

"Are you a servant?" he asked, and Bridget couldn't help but notice his strange way of speaking. Again she had found another different accent there.

Bridget looked at the man and was stunned by the fierce look he had. He was young, but clearly much older than her. Or maybe it was just his strong features and the stern look he had what made him appear older than he actually was.

He was a very tall man with tanned skin and very dark hair, which reached his broad shoulders, falling from inside the turban. But his eyes. They were green and they contrasted with all his other features so much that Bee felt hypnotized by those jade eyes.

It took half a second for her to remember that man had just asked her a question and when she remembered what he wanted to know, the girl didn't know what to answer. She wasn't a servant, and her pride hurt only because he thought she was one by the way she looked. But well, she was covered in different cooking ingredients, so he had a reason to mistake her for a servant.

That was shy she didn't even correct him in his assumption. And also the fact that that man intimidated her a bit.

"Is there anything I can do for you, my lord?" Bee answered and slightly bowed her head the way she had seen Dina do a few times.

"Could you fetch me and my men something to drink?"

"Sure, my lord"

Bridget returned to the kitchen and filled a glass jar with water for the rider and _his men,_ as he called them.

Again she returned to the courtyard, where the visitors were already being greeted by the King and the Queen, as well as Fevian.

She saw the prince stare at her, not quite getting what she was doing, but she approached the green eyed man and gave her the jar. He thanked her for bringing the water and gave her a smile after being refreshed by drinking from the jar.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, my lord?"

"You could start by stop calling me my lord" he said with a smile, and giving the jar to another one of the riders.

Bridget couldn't help but smile as well when he said that. She didn't want to be called a lady and that rider didn't want to be called a lord. Apparently only Fevian and Cara were fond to those titles.

"All right, then" Bridget said "Well, if there's nothing else I can do for you, I should go"

"Thank you for the water, again"

Bridget again did the little bow with her head, turned and left to go to her rooms and finally change those dirty clothes.

At last she had memorized the labyrinth-like halls and stairs she had to take to get to her room. And while walking towards there she couldn't help but smile, thinking that being mistaken for a servant hadn't been so bad at all.

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**So, how was it?**

**Please review, people! That's what tells me if you're still interested in this or if it's just crap! :)**

**See you in the next one! Peace!**


	11. The royal ball

**ello to everyone! And Merry Christmas to you all! :)**

**Since I will be gone for a some days (Vacations, yay!) I won't be able to post anything, so I wanted to at least leave this new chapter ready for you to read. I kind of rushed this chapter and I must say I don't feel entirely happy with it, but I really didn't want to leave you all without it for so long. So here it is.**

**This one is around 2,000 words and I hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter 11**

**"The royal****ball"**

"Are you sure this is what you want, my boy?" the king asked, looking sternly at his son.

He didn't doubt Fevian's reasons to decide what he just did, but he knew very well the young prince sometimes acted on impulses rather than really think things through. He was, after all, his own son and Fevian had inherited that part from him.

"Yes, father, I am" the prince said with a smile. "If there is someone I would like to share the rest of my life with is Cara. I love her"

Fevian looked at his mother and noticed she was extremely happy to hear his son finally wanted to get married. Besides, Queen Alva always had hoped his son would get married precisely with that beautiful young lady.

The prince made a little bow with his head and left the throne room. As he closed the doors he noticed Cara was still waiting outside. She seems very nervous. Her whole future depended on the king and the queen's decision, after all.

"What did they say?" Cara asked, seeing Fevian with wide open eyes and then looking down at her hands. "Did they approve?"

"Of course they approved" he whispered at her, taking her hands in his and raising her chin with one finger "Who else would be more worthy and perfect than you to be a future queen of Narnia, Cara?"

She smiled shyly at him.

"Which only leads us to one thing left to do" the prince continued, as he took something out of his pocket. He dropped on one knee, raising a white gold ring beautifully carved and decorated with diamonds and looked up into her eyes "Isicara, will you be my wife?"

Cara was at loss of words for a moment. She knew Fevian was planning to marry her, she knew he would ask her that, but seeing it was actually happening made her heart stop in her chest. This moment was something she had been dreaming about for a couple of years, it was a fantasy she hoped one day would actually happen, and even more when her mother told her she probably was going to marry someone else.

"Yes!" Cara whispered, still finding it hard to speak but more happy than ever.

Fevian placed the ring in her finger and leapt, to grab her into a hug. Both smiled and laughed, filled with joy.

When they broke apart, the prince brushed a strand of her dark hair away from her eyes, placing it behind her ear. His hand lingered there for a moment and he gently placed it at the back of her neck, leaning forward to place his lips on hers.

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Bridget had never attended a ball before in her entire life and let alone a royal ball held in honor to the prince of a magical land. The prince's 20th birthday was apparently a very important event.

Dina explained to her that the ball was not only organized because it was Fevian's birthday, it was also because of a Telmarine tradition. Turning 20 years old was a big event and kind of turning point in every boy's lives. It meant they were reaching a new stage in their lives, it meant they were finally adults. In the case of the prince it meant that from that moment on he could become the king. If something bad happened to King Tavian, like dying, the throne would immediately go to him and not to some foreign relative old enough to take throne.

"Let's say he is _officially_the heir to the throne" Dina had said "I heard some nobles and royals will come to pledge their allegiance to him because of that"

"That explains the great amount of carriages that have been coming here in the past days" Bridget said "Yesterday I saw around 10 arriving and one of the men confused me for a servant" she laughed and Dina couldn't contain herself either.

"That's why you came back for water!" Dina exclaimed, understanding the whole situation and she continued to laugh "But, Bee, you don't even look like a servant, with all your pretty dresses…"

"He saw me after I left the kitchen" she interrupted.

"Oh" was the only thing the Archenlander said, for she knew exactly how Bee had looked when she left.

"I think I should be going now, Dina. The ball will start in a few hours and still have go and change into the dress Fevian gave me and I still have to figure out how I'm going to put it on… Narnian dresses are so complicated!"

"I could help you"

So thanks to Dina's assistance she was sitting there, enjoying the banquet in the big table that was set in the great ballroom, looking gorgeous in her white and blue dress. If it hadn't been for the young servant's help, Bridget was sure she wouldn't have ever been able to put that dress on. It was as if she was wearing two dresses. One plain white underdress, the sleeves beginning beneath her shoulders and the other was a blue embroidered overdress, corset-like in the torso area, with many small buttons lined up on her back. It was a beautiful dress, but too complicated to put on for her taste.

She had already been complimented that evening about her look a few times by some men. The first one had been Fevian and then his father. What she hadn't expected was the compliments she got from some lords, princes and kings when she was standing next to Fevian, Cara and the monarchs of Narnia as they greeted the guests.

"I believe I must offer an apology to you, my lady" came a thickly accented voice next to her.

Bridget raised her eyes from her plate to the man who moved a chair to sit next to her. It was the rider who had mistaken her for a servant. He, as well as her, was wearing clothes more fancy than the ones from the day they met. The fabric from his whole attire seemed much more expensive than the ones from the day before, his turban wasn't dirty from riding and he was even wearing a couple of golden rings.

Next to the rider, sat the people he had escorted and Bee realized, even if the rider's clothes seemed nice, that he was notoriously of a lower status than those men and ladies. _They_ were wearing the fancy and lush clothes. Not to mention the jewelry and gem ornaments sewed on the fabric.

"Still I wonder and it remains a mystery to me, why, if you are a noblewoman, you let me believe otherwise yesterday"

"I'm not a noblewoman"

"But I can see you are no servant, either"

"I looked like a servant when you saw me, it didn't seem right to correct you"

"Well, you should have, my lady" he said, taking a sip from his cup of wine. "Tastes good enough, but I dare say no wine will ever compare or compete against a fine Calormene wine"

He looked at her and smiled at her puzzled look. She couldn't help but smile as well "My lady has never heard of Calormen, am I right? Your eyes say it"

"No, sorry" Bee whispered. She suddenly felt ashamed for her lack of knowledge of that world "Hmm… the truth is I'm not from this place, so I don't know much about it"

"Well, I'll make sure one day you know at least a bit of the great wine my country has to offer, my lady… I apologize for my rudeness, but I have not even inquired about your name"

Bridget was amazed at how that man spoke. He had a strange way of choosing words, speaking very politely and yet it didn't seem forced. That man had a talent with words, she could tell that already.

"My name is Bridget"

"It is surely a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bridget. My name is Ardavan"

"It is a pleasure, my lord"

"I recall telling you yesterday you should not call me that, for I am no lord, I am simply captain of the guard"

"Oh, really? That's interesting"

"I came here simply as an escort and to protect our Tisroc, may he live forever, his nephew the _tarkaan _Kamshad_,_as well as_tarkaan_ Haidar, _tarkaan_ Ishaad, _tarkaan_ Jamel and their wives" he told her as he signalized to her each one of the people he was talking about. All of them were sitting on that table near Ardavan as well as the other Calormene riders she had seen the day before.

Apparently the royals of Calormen were the only ones who had brought their personal guards to protect them during that ball. All the other guests from Archeland, Telmar, Galma, the Sevens Isles and the Lone Islands seemed less worried about being protected or not even worried at all.

Bridget continued to talk that evening with the green eyed Calormene and learned some more things about him as well as he asked some more about her. It turned out the young man was in fact younger than he appeared, being only 22 years old.

After the banquet the musicians began to play and to her horror, Ardavan asked to dance with her. She couldn't find it in herself to refuse but she was terrified because it was the first time she would put her dancing skills -taught to her by Fevian- to the test.

_Oh, please don't make a fool of yourself. Please don't make a fool of yourself…_

He stood in front of her, took her left hand in his and placed her other hand on his shoulder. She felt nervous and she almost shivered when he placed his hand on her waist. Bee found his contact rather pleasant, but the thought of what was to come kept her from enjoying Ardavan's presence and touch.

The music was extraordinary, beginning quite smooth and serene, preparing everyone for the explosion of sounds that would follow. It went on with more strength, the tempo rising a bit. Bee could distinguish violins playing, tambourines, something else that resembled a piano, but not quite.

Ardavan guided her throughout the whole song and it appeared he didn't only have a talent with words, but also a talent dancing. He had poise and grace as he moved, but he had also passion in each and every movement.

Bridget looked around and she could manage to see Fevian dancing with Cara, and some other guests as well. There were also fauns dancing around and she was surprised to see how well they did it.

Everyone in Narnia were excellent dancers or what? Were they determined to really make her make a fool of herself?

As she continued to dance she found it hard to take her glance off of Ardavan's emerald eyes. They were so hypnotizing. All of him was hypnotizing to Bridget.

Being there, dancing with him the way she was dancing made her blush a little, because she was very close to him, he was holding her, and the only kind of Earth-dance she could compare that one to was probably the tango. The sensual yet elegant tango.

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After so much dancing, the king stopped everything to offer a toast in honor of his son. Everyone raised their cups and wished the young prince all the best.

Many nobles approached Fevian and as Dina told Bee, they all pledged their allegiance to the future king. King Ror of Archeland was particulary kind to him and even offered an alliance between the two kingdoms by arranging a marriage between him and his beautiful daughter Princess Vera. The prince politely declined the offer but the king was still interested in being an ally to Narnia, whether there would be a wedding between his daughter and Fevian or not.

Little after that Fevian publicly announced that he was engaged to be married with lady Isicara of Telmar and all the guests cheered even more, for there was something else to celebrate at the ball.

King Tavian, however, thought it was rather odd that the nephew of the Tisroc never approached his son to pledge alliance or even to greet him or wish him a happy birthday. All the other people of Calormen did it, but the young lord didn't. He had been acting very mysterious throughout the whole evening. That was why he approached the young Calormene to talk.

King Tavian and the nephew of the ruler of Calormene shared a small talk, pretty tense and very straightforward in the questions and answers they gave one another.

"Why have you come here, Kamshad, if not to celebrate with the rest of us?" Tavian finally asked after some time. It was clear to him the young man hadn't come to Narnia for the ball.

"Because when my uncle dies, which you know will be soon" the arrogant man said "I will be the Tisroc and your beloved Narnia might become Calormen's newest colony"

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**That was it. So as you can see the story is finally developing into something! And in the next chapter Fevian and Bee finally leave to find her a way back home :)**

**There is so much music that has inspired me to write this thing, you know? At the end I promise to post the names of all the songs (Kind of like a**_**"When you believe" Soundtrack)**_**if any of you is interested.**

**Please leave me some reviews, I love them!****Please tell me what you think. What you loved. What you hated. Ideas. Whatever, just comment!****Peace!**


	12. Lessons

**I hate that it takes so long for me to post a new chapter... but honestly, this time all the blame goes to my school. But I'm finally done with exams, literature works, biology protocols and all that stuff that has had me up to my neck with work...**

**I started this chapter about a month and a half ago and only today I had time to actually finish it! :)**

**This one doesn't really develop the plot a lot, I just wanted there to be some Bridget/Ardavan interaction, I wanted to make a comparison between her current life in Narnia and her life in England, so here it is. I hope you like it!**

**And yay for the longest chapter so far! (2,220 words!)**

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**Chapter 12**

**"Lessons"**

"Miss Pevensie! Is there a reason why you consider drifting away to the marvelous world of your dreams to be more important than your current class?"

Bridget's eyes immediately snapped open as she heard her name being called by a high-pitched voice and looked with fright at Mrs. Hathaway, standing in front of her desk, looking down sternly at her through her oval-shaped glasses.

"Mrs. Hathaway, I'm so…"

"Sleepy, apparently, to be able to remain conscious during my class" the old teacher interrupted her. "I wouldn't be surprised if you fail the test next week, Miss Pevensie"

All her classmates were staring at Bridget and the teacher without making a single noise. Bee wasn't, after all, the only student who feared old Mrs. Hathaway's temper. She was sure the devil himself would run away filled with terror from that viper temper of hers.

"It is a shame you are not like your mother, Miss Pevensie. I must say Susan Pevensie was one of Saint Finbar's best students. One of my best students, I might add. Oh, what marvelous times were those" her teacher added, sighing and in a dramatic tone "when girls really put some effort in this school to achieve something. But then again, for some to succeed others must fail"

Bridget hated the look the teacher gave her as she said the word _fail._ Even though Mrs. Hathaway no longer was talking directly to her, she knew that final word had been directed only for her.

Everyone in Saint Finbar's school for ladies knew what an example of perfection Susan Pevensie was when she had attended that school years ago. For Bridget it was hard to live under her shadow and the annoying part was that she too, was a great student! It was a shame she didn't inherited her mother's arithmetic skills, though…

"Luckily for Miss Pevensie and any other of you girls, who feel quite _unprepared_ for next week's test, the nice boys from Hendon House will be giving some tutoring this Saturday along with Jane and some other girls from the next grade"

Bridget sighed. Jane was a year older than her and was a selfish, self-centered girl who took every chance she had to be the centre of attention, especially when the Hendon House's boys were anywhere near her. She had to admit, though, Jane was indeed very good in arithmetic. But she was a real pain.

So it appeared her Saturday was going to be a _nice_ reunion of the twin school, Hendon House for boys, with Jane and her minions studying arithmetic.

_What a dream, just my idea for a perfect weekend…_

That was why on Saturday she was stuck in a classroom with a boy named Jared, an unbearable nerd, who took every chance he had to have small-talk with Bridget in between exercises which ultimately led to him asking her for a date.

She had dealt with Jared before and it was the same repetitive story over and over again: He liked her, she couldn't stand him and he always ended up asking to go out with her. That boy just wouldn't give up! They both took the same train in the mornings to go to school because Saint Finbar's was just across the road from Hendon House. That was why they saw each other very often, more often that Bridget would have wished, but there was nothing she could do. She had said no many times to him, but it appeared Jared wouldn't take no for an answer.

Following everyday's routine, Jared invited Bridget out, and following her own routine she declined (obviously). She wasn't in a good mood, she really wanted to be anywhere else but there and it felt like a terrible waste of time to be studying arithmetic there with _him_ when she had a very smart, very logic mother who dealt with arithmetic easily.

Bridget did her best to ignore Jared's pleads to go out with him, focused as much as she could on the exercise at hand and prayed for time to pass by quicker.

It was awful to have someone almost her own age teaching (trying to teach was more like it) her something she could have figured out on her own with more practice. It was a really big kick to her pride. And the looks he gave her! Jared was basically staring non-top at her through those goofy round glasses of his!

_Ok, that's overly uncomfortable, annoying and creepy… Please look elsewhere, please look elsewhere…_

"So, do you understand how to do this next exercise?" Jared asked, with his slightly nasal voice "If not you know you can ask me everything"

_And there's that smile… again…_

"Yes I can do it, Jared"

"Are you sure? You seem a little confused with this procedure here" he pointed at her notebook and then gave her that creepy look of his that was really unnerving Bridget. And then of course, _the smile_.

"Look, do you remember what I told you about logarithms? That's what you need to do here"

* * *

"So remember to bend your arm slightly, otherwise you might injure your arm. The string scraping your skin hurts a lot. It leaves your arm sore and you may even get a bruise"

Bridget did as he said. She remembered Fevian had mentioned that a while ago, the day he taught her archery, or at least to handle a bow and shoot arrows, because that truly was the only thing she had learned that day.

Holding a bow. Achieved. Holding it correctly. She was getting there. Shooting arrows. Achieved. Hitting the target. Failed.

"Very good. Now stand straight, Bridget. Pull the string harder, get a tight grip of it" the thickly accented voice said and Bridget followed his every instruction "And remember to _aim_ before you let go"

She knew he was mocking her. Her last 5 arrows were stuck everywhere but near the middle of the target and only those had hit the target. However, the others before…

"Aim, I know you can do it"

Bridget blinked a couple of times, staring at the target which stood about 15 meters away from where she was standing.

"Now you can let go"

The arrow flew across the air, directly to the bullseye with a faint swoosh and pierced it. Not even by chance in the centre, but at least the arrow was stuck within the target and not on some tree nearby as some of her other arrows did.

"That was good enough, I can see you are improving…" Her teacher praised and gave her a long look with those hypnotizing green eyes of his.

"But…?" Bridget knew his sentence was unfinished.

"But you still have a lot to learn" Ardavan told her encouragingly. He noticed a weak smile in the girl's face "However, I can tell you have the skill for this"

"Fevian told me the same"

"Well, His Majesty the Prince was right" the Calormene said with a smile "Try again, I am certain you will hit closer to centre in no time if you keep practicing"

Bridget took another arrow from her quiver and placed it in the bow, the nock firmly attached to the string. She tightened her grip, her fingers curving strongly around the handle. Her eyes were fixed upon the target as she tugged the string back and held her stance. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, prepared to let go of the arrow.

"Do not move"

"I'm sorry?" Bridget asked, turning to look at him and lowering the bow, still confused by Ardavan's words which took her out of her line of thought, of her concentration.

"You moved" he smiled "Take your stance again"

In no time Bridget was prepared to shoot her arrow again. "Ready" she said.

"I see what your problem is" the Calormene told Bee as he approached her, walking around her, studying every bit of her stance to check what she wasn't doing right. "Your right arm is not positioned as it should be"

Ardavan was standing behind her when he spoke again "Take your hand back just a bit, try to place it beneath your chin". Bridget couldn't see him, she was only guided by the sound of his voice and she became aware of their proximity as she heard his low voice coming from some place aback.

His hand rested on her elbow gently, and he lowered it slightly "Elbow down, like this". His right arm was around her and Bridget couldn't help but feel nervous when his other arm reached out to touch the hand she was gripping the bow's handle with. It felt almost as if he was embracing her.

"Relax, you do not have the need to tighten your grip like this" his fingers caressed her hand delicately "Good"

Ardavan moved his hand from her elbow to her shoulder as he said "You need to relax. Breathe. Feel it. Now you will not miss"

Suddenly Bridget felt Ardavan's gentle touch no more, as he backed down, but her skin was still tingling where his hands used to rest. His scent still lingered around her, but she was surprised to notice she missed his touch.

In the blink of an eye Bridget's arrow was embedded in the centre of the target.

"A perfect shot" Ardavan praised and clapped. His student had excelled just as he knew she would "You are definitely made for this, Bridget. You simply needed the right technique"

Bridget was still staring at the target in awe. Her arrow had hit the centre! She turned to face the Calormene, her mouth still wide open in disbelief "I can't believe I just… That was amazing! Thank you" she said and smiled.

Ardavan bowed his head just a bit, he was also smiling. When he raised his head, his eyes met Bridget's. It was a meaningful, lasting look. The Calormene was lost in her innocent smile and her crystal-blue eyes. He had never met a girl quite like her. Bridget was very different from all the Calormene women he had been surrounded by his entire life. She was intelligent, fun and so full of life. Bridget was a free spirit, was honest and wasn't pretentious as most of the ladies he had met. But then again, Bridget wasn't a lady.

He was truly thankful that Ashmeran, the Tisroc, had decided to stay for two weeks to discuss some important matters with King Tavian even though all the other _tarkaans_ and their ladies had already departed towards Calormen several days ago. As Captain of the guard it was Ardavan's duty to stay with the Tisroc. If it hadn't been for him, he wouldn't have had the chance to stay longer in Narnia. If it hadn't been for him, he wouldn't have had the chance to get to know Bridget the way he did for the past weeks.

"You are and excellent teacher, Ardavan" Bridget was the one to break the silence that had sifted upon them.

"Why, you are and excellent student"

"Here you are!"

Both the Calormene and the girl were surprised to see Fevian there. None of them noticed the moment he had arrived "Bridget, I've been searching for you all over the castle, I didn't expect to find you in the training fields. Hello, Captain"

"Your Highness" Ardavan bowed to the prince.

"Hello. I-I came to train archery with Ardavan" Bridget explained.

"Are you finished? There is something quite important I have to discuss with you, Bee"

"We are done, your Majesty" Ardavan answered.

"All right" The prince offered Bridget his arm "Shall we?"

Bridget didn't really feel like leaving. She was kind of reluctant to accompany Fevian, because she enjoyed Ardavan's company greatly every time they were together. She couldn't deny she liked the Calormene greatly, after all. There was something about that man that enthralled her in a way no other man ever did before.

"Could we do this again soon?" she asked Ardavan before leaving with the prince.

"It would be my pleasure" was his response, accompanied with a smile Bridget had come to love in the past few days.

"Tomorrow then?"

"I will be here"

_And there's that smile. Again._

* * *

"Tomorrow? So soon?"

"I thought you wanted to leave as soon as possible"

"Yes, but…"

"I felt terrible for not being able to keep my promise of leaving immediately after the ball" Fevian interrupted her "But you know, some unexpected plans were made"

"More like an _unexpected proposal_, you mean" she said with a smile "But please stop feeling guilty for not leaving after your ball, I understand you couldn't leave your betrothed, Fevian. It would have been rude"

"Which is why we had to wait. But now we can leave. Cara and her family left this morning to Telmar. The problem is we don't have much time, Bee. The wedding is in a month. Cara and her family will be here by then and I won't be able to help you anymore. As a husband I can't leave this place every time I please. I will have a duty toward my wife. And I really do want to help you go home, I made my promise and I intend to keep it"

"All right"

"Be ready, then. We depart at dawn"

* * *

**Ta-da! So in my next chapter the adventure to return home finally begins!**

**Please leave me some reviews, I love them! ****Please tell me what you think. What you loved. What you hated. Ideas. Whatever, just comment! ****Peace!**


	13. Farewell

**Hello everybody! Since I didn't got to school I used my beloved free time to write this. I had a day off, don't think I skipped it, I'm a responsible person... that's always been my problem :P**

**So, without further ado here's chapter 13 (1,780 words... I tried to make it longer, but I just could't)**

**Anyhow, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**"Farewell"**

The moon was still shining up in the sky when the prince walked out of his chambers, silently, trying not to make a sound as he closed the thick wooden door. Fevian was careful not make a sound as he walked before his parent's room, tiptoeing and holding his sheathed sword very tight against him. If it clanked against the quarry wall or marble the floor, it would be the kiss of death. Fevian knew the sound of it would wake his parents up. Or at least just his mother, who was an incredible light sleeper. Just that simple clank and in just a few seconds Fevian would have the queen raging in front of him, upset because he had disobeyed his parents orders.

The king and the queen were reluctant to let their son leave with Bridget when he told them he would do so. Queen Alva was outraged that her son intended to depart with the girl just a day after he got engaged to be married with Lady Isicara.

"What does this have to do with Cara, Mother?" had been the prince's reply.

"It has everything to do with it, Fevian! You just announced yesterday at the ball that you would marry her and now a day later you want to run off with that girl!"

"My dear, do calm down. Let the boy explain his reasons" King Tavian spoke, taking his wife's hand and giving her a gentle smile.

Fevian was thankful for his father's ability to calm his mother down. It appeared that just seconds ago the queen wanted to cut off his head and now she was more at ease, not entirely, but at least she was willing to listen to what her son wanted to say.

"I made a promise to help Bridget return home"

"Is that so?" Queen Alva said with disdain.

"Yes, I gave her my word and I will keep it" her son answered sternly.

"My boy, you are aware that you cannot leave immediately. You also gave Isicara your word"

"I know, Father"

"As long as she or her family stay in Cair Paravel, you will not leave. Once they go we will speak of this matter again"

"Yes, Father. Thank you"

The problem was when they spoke of the matter again. That day both monarchs gave a resounding no to their son. They didn't allow him to leave and their reasons were unknown to the prince but still he was leaving.

Fevian descended the stairs that led him to the stables where he readied both horses he and Bridget would take: his strong black stallion, and a brown mare. He strapped the bag he had to his mount as well as the sheath with his sword. The prince tightened the reins and the seats. Both horses were now ready to ride. Now Fevian had to wait for Bridget to show up.

* * *

After Bridget finished readying herself for the journey she immediately went straight to the kitchen to take some provisions to put in her satchel along with the change of clothes she had already packed.

She was surprised to find Dina there even though it was still very early in the morning.

"Dina. Why are you up so early?"

"There will be a banquet today. The men from Calormen leave in the afternoon and their Majesties have ordered there to be a farewell feast"

"I didn't know they would leave today"

"Yes" the girl spoke as she began to take out some vegetables from a sack that later would be washed and minced "But why are you up so early?"

"I'm leaving too. I'm going home" she explained.

Dina and Bridget said farewell to each other. The Archenlander was sad that she would no longer see her friend and Bridget felt terrible for not being able to tell Dina they would see each other soon, because she knew they probably wouldn't.

The young servant helped Bridget pack a few apples and gave her a couple loaves of bread. They hugged and said goodbye to each other.

As Bridget walked out of the kitchen she saw in the dim light a man a few some meters ahead of her who was walking down the hall and in direction to the main courtyard. She was also going in the same direction because from the courtyard she would go to the nearby stables, where the prince said he would be waiting for her. At first she supposed he was Fevian, but when they were both crossing the courtyard, she got a better look of him and realized he was somebody else.

"Ardavan"

The Calormene turned around and was surprised to see her there, so early in the morning and dressed almost as a man, because she was wearing riding boots, with some brown trousers and a nice shirt and vest. It was quite a change because until that moment Ardavan had always seen her wearing dresses, from the beautiful dress she had wore at the ball, to the dirty one she wore when they met or even the simple one she used when they practiced archery.

"Bridget" he sounded surprised and even confused to see the girl.

"I'm glad I found you here, otherwise I wouldn't have had the chance to say goodbye"

"To say… why would you have to say goodbye?" the young man gave her a puzzled look "You are leaving?"

"Yes, I'm going home, Ardavan"

"I always assumed you lived here. How stupid of me never to ask about your home"

"Don't worry. There's not much to know about it. Just that I miss my mother and my sisters. Terribly"

There was actually a lot she had wanted to share with him about her home all those times they had been together, but she had never wanted to get into the complications of explaining him that she came from another world. Bridget had no idea how he would react, but she was sure Fevian's incredibly good reaction to her story wasn't something to be expected every time she told her story to other people. But she really had wanted to share that part of her with Ardavan.

Instead she had just shared some fragments of her life, mentioning only that she had two sisters, that her mother was a widow, that really enjoyed reading and that sort of details that didn't need to be told along with the word _England_.

In change Ardavan had opened to her about more parts of life. His childhood, his four brothers, his deceased parents or how he became Captain of the guard and a personal protector for the Tisroc. He really had a talent with words, he was an extraordinary storyteller and Bridget had been submerged in his story only a few days ago. And now, she would no longer hear stories from him. Ever.

"Well, then I am glad for you" Ardavan's words made her trail off from her thoughts and she remembered the conversation they were having "You will see Caroline, Alice and your mother in no time" he said with an encouraging smile. _That smile_. "I depart today as well, the Tisroc, may he live forever, and I return to Tashbaan. I hope we will meet again, Bridget. Soon, I hope"

Bridget felt as if she was melting with his words. The young captain seemed as if he was trying to maintain composure but in reality was having some troubled feelings inside, having the "politeness" façade on. She also was wearing the same mask, one that allowed her to pretend everything was alright, that it didn't affect her to leave. Bridget too, was having troubled feelings. She wanted to return home so badly, but Ardavan was a reason why she wanted to stay.

They were both unsure of what they had to do next and the only thing Ardavan could think of was to smile, but it was kind of a sad smile. Bridget's response to his smile was to hug him. Her arms slid around his neck and she had to stand on her toes to be able to do so, for the Calormene was taller than her. Ardavan's arms reacted almost in synchrony with Bridget's, embracing her and pulling her closer. They held each other and stood like that for a moment.

As they separated, they stared into each other's eyes, emerald meeting sapphire. There was something to that moment that they both realized they would never see each other again.

Ardavan's hand caressed her cheek gently "I will miss you, Bridget"

Bridget intended to answer she would miss him too, but she found it hard to speak. There was a knot in her throat, coiling more and more. No words came out from her mouth, but she placed hers on top of his, closing the space between them.

That was the first time Bridget and Ardavan kissed and it was also going to be the last.

* * *

Fevian and Bridget left Cair Paravel shortly before the sun was beginning to arise from behind the horizon, showering with light all Narnia. They rode away just as two thieves escape in dead of night trying not to be heard and hoping not to get caught.

It was around midday when they reached the village Bridget already knew: Tediaren. There they bought two wineskins to fill with water and be able to carry something to drink with them. They didn't stay for long, but they took the chance to eat something there, something substantial because they would eat nothing more than fruits and bread for the rest of the journey. Or at least until they reached the next village which was near Cauldron Pool.

As they were sitting in the inn where they bought their meals, Fevian spread the map he was carrying on the table to showed Bridget the route he planned on taking to reach the lamppost, which laid on the far northwest end of parchment chart.

"Tomorrow we will ride near the Dancing Lawn to cross here, in the Fords of Beruna" the prince spoke as he was tracing the way over the map with his finger "It will take us around two days to ride to the bridge of the Great River, here" he pointed a place near a waterfall "We will have to camp maybe one night or two in the Shuddering Woods. We will cross Telmar River and when we reach this village, Glivard, we can stay in an inn. Then we cross near Cauldron Pool, ride through the Western Wood and in no time we will get to the lamppost"

"All right"

"Are you done eating, because we have a long way to go"

* * *

**How was it?**

**I honestly like the fact that Bee and Ardavan kiss in this chapter, but I was really unsure whether they should or not. Then I remembered Bee's mother _did _take a chance to kiss a certain someone when she realized she wouldn't see him again (yes, I'm talking about Caspian). That's why the kiss is in this chapter (for those who liked it, thank Susan and the fact that she and her daughter think in a very similar way).**

**And this chapter is a Farewell to Ardavan (hence the title), a character I didn't think I would come to like so much :) (Honestly he just came up a _filler_ character, but I really like him now)**

**Please leave me some reviews, I love them! ****Please tell me what you think. What you loved. What you hated. Ideas. Whatever, just comment! ****Peace!**


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